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THE  UNIVERSITY  LIBkAWv 
W  JOLLA.  CALtfOHNW 

DEMONETIZATION  OF  SILVER. 


I  do  not  believe  it  (the  power  ol  regulating  the  currency)  is  a  safe  power 
in  the  banks.  I  believe  it  is  a  great  power  which  is  capable  of  belnp  used 
for  the  destruction  of  the  business  and  interests  of  ihe  people.  If  confided 
to  the  banks  *  *  *  the  banks  will  issue  their  notes  or  regulate  the  vol- 
iirne  of  the  currency  according  to  their  own  interests.  *  *  *  If  it  be  to 
their  interest  to  contract,  they  will  contract.  If  it  be  to  their  Interest  to  ex- 
pand the  currency,  they  will  expand  it.    *    *    * 

1  want  no  pet  children  of  the  Government  and  no  stepchildren.  Let  all 
her  children  be  treated  alike.  *  *  *  So  long  as  I  hold  a  seat  on  thi.s  floor 
I  shall  not,  under  any  pressure,  cast  a  vote  which  will  give  to  any  privile^iied 
class,  to  any  pet  children  of  the  Government,  a  privilege  or  an  advantage 
denied  to  the  great  masses  of  the  people  themselves. — Senator  George's  speech 
in  ihe  United  States  Senate,  in  February,  1884. 


SPEECH 


f.  '"' 


HON.  JAMES  Z.  GEORGE, 

OF    MISSISSIPPI, 


m  THE 


SENATE  OF  THE   UNITED   STATES, 


Wednesday  and  Friday,  September  20  and  22,  1893. 


WASHINGTON. 

1893. 


SPEECH 

OF 

HON.    JAMES    Z.     GEORGE 


The  Senate  having  nnder  consideration  the  bill  (H.  R.  1)  to  repeal  a  part 
of  an  act,  approved  July  U,  1890,  entitled  "An  act  directing  the  purchase 
of  silver  bullion  and  the  issue  of  Treasm-y  notes  thereon,  and  for  other  pur- 
poses"— 

Mr.  GEORGE  said: 

Mr.  President:  I  am  well  aware  that  the  debate  has  pro- 
ceeded to  such  an  extent  that  discussion  is  not  listened  to  with 
much  patience  by  this  body,  but  as  I  am  a  Democrat  and  happen 
to  differ  from  a  Democratic  Administration  upon  tlris  very  im- 
portant measure,  and  as  I  believe  that  a  largo  majority  of  my 
constituents  concur  in  the  view  which  I  take,  I  deem'it  to  be 
my  duty  to  state  with  some  iDi-ecisiou  the  reasons  which  compel 
me  to  refuse  my  support  to  the  bill  now  before  the  Senate. 

There  is  no  question  as  to  the  very  serious  and  gi-ave  financial 
situation  in  which  we  are  placed,  though  there  are  now  visible 
evidences  of  improvement.  An  important  and  essential  part  of 
our  duty  is  to  inquire  and  ascertain,  if  possible,  the  causes  which 
have  produced  this  unparalleled  state  of  affairs,  and  then  to 
enact  the  remedy.  For  any  action  of  Congress  taken  in  ignor- 
ance of  the  true  causes  would  be  a  leap  in  the  dark,  and  as  likely 
to  increase  as  to  diminish  the  gravity  of  the  evils  under  which 
the  country  suffers. 

Whilst  we  lind  that  the  supporters  of  the  repeal  of  the 
purchasing  clause  of  the  Shei-man  bill  agree  that  the  repeal  is  a 
proper  remedy,  we  find  them  differing  widely  as  to  the  cause 
and  nature  of  the  disease  itself.  The  President  thinks  the 
cause  is  the  Sherman  law,  and  very  logically  recommends  its 
repeal. 

SHERMAN  LAW  NOT  THE  CAUSE  OF  PRESENT  DISASTER. 

The  Senator  from  Massachusetts  [Mr.  Hoar]  and  the  Senator 
from  Indiana  [Mr.  VooRHEES],  whilst  differing  widely  as  to  the 
true  cause,  yet  agree  that  our  present  troubles  are  not  attribu- 
table to  that  much-abused  enactment.  The  Senator  from  Massa- 
chusetts, after  depicting  in  eloquent  language  the  distress  of  the 
present,  with  equal  force  and  eloquence  described  the  liappy  con- 
dition of  ova-  country  up  to  tlic  4th  of  March  last,  which  day 
seems,  in  his  judgment,  to  be  the  beginning  of  our  sorrows. 

In  expressing  his  view  of  the  causes  of  the  present  distress 
he  uses  the  following  language: 

While  I  do  not  attribute  our  present  disasters  in  any  part  to  the  legisla- 
tion of  1890  (the  Sherman  law),  I  do  attribute  them  to  a  serious  extent  to 
the  failui'e  of  the  present  Exemitive  to  assure  the  country  and  the  world  that 
h^  woxild  use  the  power  sivou  him  tomaintain  the  twometals  at  par.  This, 
with  the  prevalent  dread  of  v.hat  a  distinguished  member  of  this  body  de- 
scribed as  a  "war  of  extermination  upon  the  protected  industries  of  this 
country,"  accounts,  in  my  judgment,  for  our  existing  condition. 

486  3 


Whilst  not  affreein^  with  that  distinguished  Senator  in  his 
affirmation  as  to  the  true  cause  of  our  troubles,  I  concur  with 
him  ;;s  to  his  negation  on  that  subject.  I  ■am.  after  the  best  ex- 
amination I  am  able  to  give,  convinced  that  our  present  disasters 
are  not  attributable  in  any  part  to  the  Sherman  act. 

I  am  in  accord  with  the  view  of  the  Senator  from  Indiana, 
which  attributes  in  a  large  degree  the  causes  of  our  disasters  to 
the  moneyed  classes  of  the  country.  If  these  distinguished  Sen- 
ators are  i-ight,  no  relief  can  come  from  the  passage  of  this  bill. 

UNCONDITIONAL    REPEAL    AN    AGGRAVATION  OF  TROUBLE  AND  NO  RELIEF. 

My  judgment  is  thattherepeal,unaccompanied  with  any  other 
remedy,  will  be  an  aggravation  of  our  troubles  and  in  no  sense  a 
relief. 

Concurring  in  the  opinion  expressed  by  the  Senator  from  In- 
diana, that  the  national  banks  and  moneyed  clashes  are  largely 
responsible  for  the  precipitation  on  us  of  our  present  and  recent 
financial  troubles,  yet  I  think  there  are  causes  beyond  their  ac- 
tion—causes inherent  in  the  money  system  of  the  country  and 
of  Europe,  which  not  only  make  these  financial  crises  inevitable, 
but  furnish  the  occasion  and  opportunity  for  the  banks  and  capi- 
talists their  allies  in  this  country  and  in  Europe  to  atrlict  man- 
kind at  their  will  with  these  constantly  recurring  monetary 
troubles. 

Two  antagonistic  forces  exist  in  the  financial  world,  engaged 
in  never-ceasing  conflict.  One,  the  great  mass  of  mankind — the 
laborers  and  producers — the  other,  those  who  have  been  fortunate 
enough  to  secure  to  themselves  the  greater  part  of  the  wealth 
of  the  world;  between  those  who  labor  and  those  who  have  ac- 
quired and  now  enjoy  the  stored-up  results  of  the  past  labor  of 
mankind;  between  those  producing  commodities  for  exchange 
and  consumption  and  those  who  possess  the  money  and  other 
machinery  by  which  this  exchange  must  be  made  and  wages 
paid. 

The  former  class,  being  the  great  mass  of  mankind,  the  great 
mass  of  our  own  people,  desire  an  abundance  of  money  for  which 
to  exchange  their  labor  and  their  products — they  want  a  rise  in 
the  pric.^s  of  products.  The  latter,  possessing  nearly  all  the 
money  of  the  world,  and  possessing  moneyed  obligations  of  nations 
and  corporations  and  individuals  to  many  billions  of  dollars,  de- 
sire a  sc  ircity  of  money — an  increase  in  its  purchasing  power. 
These,  whilst  knowing  that  all  the  gold  and  silver  in  the  world 
are  insufficient  to  carry  on  even  to  their  advantage  the  trade  of 
the  world,  have  invented  certain  substitutes  for  money,  highly 
profitable  to  them,  in  order  to  decrease  metallic  coinage— real 
money.  By  decreasing  the  amount  of  metallic  money  they  have 
a  larger  field  for  the  operation  of  their  monetary  devices;  they 
have  the  opportunity  to  manufacture  more  of  the  substitutes  for 
real  money,  which  substitutes  the  world  under  the  present  sys- 
tem must  use.  They  desire  just  enough  of  metallic  money  to 
enable  them  skillfully  and  profitably  to  manage  their  own  sub- 
stitute devices  for  money. 

URGENT  NEED  OF  INCREASE  OF  MONEY. 

As  civilization  advances,  as  trade  and  commerce  increase,  as 
they  have  done  enormously  in  the  last  hundred  years,  so  the 
necessity  for  an  increase  in  money  becomes  more  urgent. 

Up  to  the  middle  of  this  century,  traders,  capita  ists,  owners 


of  money,  all  agreed  with  the  great  mass  of  the  people  that 
every  increase  in  real  money— gold  and  silver— was  beneficial  to 
mankind.  It  could  not  escape  notice  that  periods  of  increasing 
volumes  of  money,  always  accompanied  by  rising  prices,  were 
periods  of  enterprise,  industrial  and  commercial  activity,  of 
progress  and  advancement,  and  that  periods  of  contraction  were 
also  times  of  stagnation,  hardships,  b  mkruptcies,  and  penury. 

The  great  addition  to  the  bimetallic  money  of  the  world  about 
the  middle  of  the  present  century— coming  from  the  gold  mines 
of  Australia  and  California— caused  a  great  rise  in  prices  and  a 
corresponding  fall  in  the  purchasing  jjower  of  metallic  money. 
Or,  in  other  words,  the  wealth  of  the  money  classes  was  greatly 
diminished;  those  who  had  money  could  only  buy  a  greatly  di- 
minished part  of  the  commodities  of  the  world.  So  it  was 
gravely  proposed  to  demonetize  gold,  that  being  the  metal  which 
was  then  so  rapidly  increasing  in  volume.  But  that  scheme 
only  partially  succeeded.  Gold,  though  very  largely  produced, 
became  at  length  a  diminishing  production.  The  production  of 
silver  began  to  increase  beyond  all  foi-mer  precedents. 

The  fear  was,  not  that  the  Avoi-ld  would  have  too  much  money 
for  its  monetary  needs,  but  that  prices  would  continue  to  rise  and 
the  purchasing  power  of  money,  that  is,  its  value,  would  continue 
to  decrease. 

FIRST  MONETARY  CONFERENCE. 

This  was  the  situation  inlS67  when  the  first  international  mon- 
etary conference  met  in  P '  is  at  the  invitation  and  under  ihe 
auspices  of  the  Emperor  Napoleon.  In  the  mean  time— between 
A.  D.  1850  and  that  year — France  had  exchanged  her  silver  me- 
tallic currency  for  gold,  though  without  demonetization  of  silver 

The  invitation  to  this  conference  skillfully  concealed  the  de- 
sign of  its  author.  It  invited  the  nations  to  confer  about  the 
international  unification  of  coin,  and  referred  to  the  bimetallic 
Latin  Union — established  in  1S65— as  the  desirable  thing  to  be 
followed  by  all  nations;  but  it  expressed  next,  if  that  were  not 
satisfactory,  a  wish  to  confer  about  other  means  of  unification. 
It  alluded  to  the  benefits  already  realized  from  the  bimetallic 
Latin  Union,  and  enlarged  upon  the  evils  coming  "from  the  di- 
versity of  coinage  which  multiply  the  fluctuations  of  exchanges." 

That  was  the  feast  to  which  the  nations  were  invited.  The 
United  States  accepted  the  invitation  in  this  sense  and  in  no 
other.  The  conference  met,  and  without  notice  to  the  world, 
without  notice  to  the  governments  which  had  sent  delegates, 
they  recommended  a  single  gold  standard. 

This  action  excited  no  attention  in  this  country  at  the  time, 
for  we  were  then  using  a  forced  paper  currency. 

BTmOPB  TURNING  TO  THE  GOLD  STANDARD. 

But  soon  the  effects  of  the  conference  began  to  be  felt.  As 
early  as  June  17,  18ti9,  Norway,  in  consequence  of  this  recom- 
mendation, began  to  turn  from  a  sole  silver  standard  to  gold. 
(See  Report  International  Confei'ence  of  1881,  page  393.)  The 
other  Scandinavian  states  joined  in  the  movement.  A  com- 
plete transition  in  these  states  from  a  silver  to  a  single  gold 
standard  was  effected  in  1872  and  1874.  Germany,  having  con- 
quered France  and  exacted  a  billion  of  dollars  as  indemnity, 
lax'gely  in  gold,  commenced  in  the  next  year,  1871,  to  change  to 
a  gold  standard  exclusively,  completing  that  transition  in  1873. 


6 

nep'.iblican  France,  humiliated  and  impoverished,  now  began 
to  reap  the  fruits  of  the  action  of  lier  late  emperor,  consummated 
"by  tlie  international  conference  of  18t)7.  Deprived  largely  of  her 
gold  by  lier  triumphant  enemy,  she  believed  that  she  was  to  be 
made  the  dumping  ground  of  the  millions  of  silver  which  were 
being  sold  by  Germany.  She  was  also  induced  by  the  action  of 
tbo  United  States  to  make  that  movement. 

Right  here  I  desire  to  correct  a  statement  made  by  the  very 
accurate  and  learned  Senator  from  Iowa  [Mr.  Allison]  on  this 
subject.  In  answer  to  an  interruption  in  his  very  able  speech  a 
few  d:iys  ago,  he  asserted  that  there  was  no  such  action  of  the 
Uhited'States  ]n'ior  to  the  action  of  France  which  could  influence 
or  did  influence  her  action.     The  record  is  the  other  way. 

I  might  remark  in  this  connection  that  in  the  examination 
and  discussion  of  this  very  important,  aye,  momentous  question, 
to  the  American  people,  it  seems  that  statesmen  and  pub- 
licists are  dwelling  in  a  kind  of  hallucination,  by  which  they 
mistake  important  and  well-settled  historical  as  well  as  finan- 
cial facts.  The  fact  is  ttjat  France  took  no  step  toward  the  de- 
monetization of  silver  until  many  months  after  the  action  of  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States,  in  February,  1873.  But  as  this 
point  is  disputed  by  so  able  and  accui*ate  a  Senator  as  the  Senator 
from  Iowa,  I  deem  it  my  duty  to  present  to  the  Senate  the  evi- 
dence which  sustains  the  assertion  which  I  make.  I  read  now 
from  the  proceedings  of  the  international  conference  of  1881, 
which  met  at  Paris  for  the  purpose  of  investigating  this  ques- 
tion. This  is  a  statement  in  reference  to  France  made  by  Mr. 
Cernuschi,  who  was  a  delegate  to  that  conference: 

The  late  legislation  of  the  Gei-mau  Empire  produced,  after  1873,  a  great 
afflux  of  silver  in  Belgium  and  Francs.  The  French  mints,  which  In  1872 
had  received  less  than  a  million  of  francs  worth  of  silver  to  coin,  received 
onchuudred  and  seventy-three  millions  worth  of  it  in  1873. 

Here  is  the  first  step  ever  taken  by  the  French  Government  in 
reference  to  a  suspension  of  the  coinage  of  silver: 

A  ministerial  order  of  the  6th  of  September,  1873,  directed  thatthemlntage 
of  silver  5-f ranc  pieces  should  henceforth  be  restricted  to  200.030  francs  per 
day. 

Our  action  was  in  February  of  that  year.  About  six  months 
after  the  United  States  had  demonetized  silver  France,  through 
a  ministerial  order,  restricted  the  coining  of  silver  in  the  sev- 
eral mints.  It  is  not  worth  while  to  read  the  extent  to  which 
they  restricted  it.  They  made  the  first  order  on  the  6th  of  Sep- 
tember, 1873.  Then  they  made  a  second  order  in  November, 
1873,  still  further  limiting  it.  ■ 

The  system  of  limited  coinaRe  of  silver,  with  a  contingent  for  each  State, 
was  inaugurated  in  the  Latin  Union  by  the  treaty  of  January  31,  1874,  and 
has  been  in  force  since  then. 

So,  Mr.  President,  it  is  a  plain  historical  fact,  and  a  momentous 
fact,  so  far  as  we  are  concerned,  that  our  demonetization  of  sil- 
ver antedated  any  action  on  the  part  of  Prance  by  at  least  six 
months,  and  was,  in  fact,  the  cause  of  the  action  of  France.  How 
the  demonetization  luippened  hero  I  need  not  now  discuss.  By 
what  influences— through  what  ignorance  of  this  action  on  the 
part  of  the  great  body  of  members  of  Congress,  including  in  this 
Ignorance  some  of  the  most  eminent  statesmen  in  the  Union  of 
both  parties,  atid  including  in  it  also  the  President  of  the  United 
States — I  need  not  now  recall.    That  matter  has  been  sufficiently 

486 


debated.  It  was,  however,  done  in  such  manner  that  our  Com- 
missioners to  tho  International  Monetary  Conference  of  1ST8, 
speaking  through  Mr.  Grocjibeck,  felt  authorized  to  say: 

From  179:2  to  this  day,  v/hen  by  a  soz't  of  inadvertenco  in  1873  the  silver 
standard  was  superceded,  not  a  mercliant,  nota  baulcer,  not  anjanufacturer, 
not  an  establishment,  nor  an  interest  of  any  Icind  could  be  cited  as  having 
raised  any  objection  to  the  simultaneous  use  of  the  two  metals.  Biuutal- 
lisni  is  therefore  in  the  United  States  notou'.y  a  tradition  of  the  law.  but  has 
entered  deeply  into  the  habits  of  the  people.  (See  International  Monttary 
Conferenco  Report  1881,  page  21.) 

Mr.  Evarts,  in  the  conference  of  1881,  called  the  demonetiza- 
tion of  silver  in  the  United  States  in  1873  an  "unlucky  inci- 
dent "  in  the  legislation  of  that  year. 

CONSPIRACY  FOB  DEMONETIZATION. 

At  that  time,  it  is  hardly  necessary  for  me  to  remark,  as  every- 
body knows  it,  that  on  the  ratio  of  IG  to  1  silver  was  at  3  per 
cent  premium;  but  after  those  events  silver  fell  rapidly  as  com- 
pared with  gold,  but  not  as  compared  with  anything  else.  Well 
was  Mr.  Carlisle  justified  in  saying  that  this  demonetization  was 
the  result  oi'  a  consi)iracy,  and  the  conspirators,  sir,  were  mon- 
archical Europe,  the  money-lenders,  the  holders  of  money  se- 
curities in  Europe  and  in  this  country.  Money  was  about  to  be- 
come too  abundant,  as  was  complained  in  1850;  the  prices  of 
agricultui'al  and  other  products  were  too  high.  Labor  was  about 
to  be  too  well  rewarded.  Tho  autocratic  control  over  human 
affairs  by  money  was  threatened.  The  emancipation  of  the 
masses  of  the  people  appeared  to  be  imminent.  God's  gifts  to 
the  human  race  for  their  progress  and  welfare  were  about  to  be- 
come through  their  munillcencc  dangerous  to  plutocratic  sway. 
So  one-half  must  be  destroyed.  This  work  was  done  by  kings 
and  emperors  and  the  holders  of  money. 

This  destruction  was  not  demanded,  as  Mr.  Groesbeck  stated, 
by  any  single  business  intcrestin  this  country.  It  had  not  been 
discussed  in  the  newspapers.  Our  Congress,  without  knowledge 
of  what  they  were  doing,  by  a  simple  provision — an  omissioi^ 
rather  than  affirmative  action — in  a  very  long  and  complicated 
bill,  demonetized  silver,  and  the  act  was  approved  by  a  great 
President,  not  knowing  at  the  time  what  he  was  doing. 

EFFORTS  TO  REVERSE  DEMONETIZATION. 

Prom  the  time  of  the  discovery  of  the  deed  of  demonetization 
the  people  of  the  United  States  have  persistently  agitated  to  se- 
cure back  what  they  had  thus  furtively  or,  if  that  term  be  pre- 
ferred, inadvertently  lost.  In  1888  and  1892  the  Republican 
national  convention  unequivocally  pronounced  in  favor  of  the 
coinage  of  both  gold  and  silver,  and  in  the  former  year  condemned 
in  vigorous  language  Mr.  Cleveland's  administration  for  what 
they  wei'e  pleased  to  say  were  its  efforts  "to  demonetize  silver." 

In  1884  the  Democratic  national  convention  declared  in  favor 
of  "honest  money,"  which  they  declared  to  be  "the  gold  and 
silvsr  coinage  ofthe  Constitution,  and  a  circulating  medium 
convertible  into  such  money"  (gold  and  silver,  not  gold  alone), 
"without  loss." 

In  1888  the  Democratic  convention,  without  mentioning  gold 
and  silver  specifically,  "  reaffirmed  the  platform  adopted  by  its 
representatives  in  the  convention  of  1884."  In  189:2,  the  last  ut- 
terance of  the  party  on  tho  question,  it  was  distinctly  affirmed 

486 


8 

that  "We  hold  to  the  use  of  both  gold  and  silver  as  the  stand- 
ard money  of  the  country  and  to  the  coin:ige  of  both  gold  and 
silver  without  discriminating  against  either.'' 

The  Populists' convention,  in  1 81)2,  demanded  "the  free  and 
unlimited  coinage  of  silver  and  gold  at  the  present  legal  ratio  of 
16  to  1." 

On  more  than  one  occasion  free  coinage,  a  restoration  to  the 
people  of  their  ancient  right,  has  passed  one  House  and  leen 
defe;ited  in  the  other.  Three  times,  in  1890,  in  1891,  and  in  J 892, 
and  if  I  did  not  misunderstand  the  Senator  from  Iowa  in  his 
speech  the  other  day,  at  another  time  has  a  free-coin-ige  bill 
passed  the  Senate  and  failed  in  the  House  of  Representatives. 
Once  in  1877  a  free-coinage  bill  passed  the  House  and  was  de- 
feated in  the  Senate  by  an  amendment  which  created  the  Bland- 
Allison  act. 

RISE  AND  FALL  OF  PRICES. 

From  that  fateful  day,  when  in  1873  silver  was  demonetized, 
the  people  have  suffered  and  decayed,  and  money  owners  and 
holders  of  money  obligations  have  flourished. 

Prices  rose  from  1849  to  1873,  38  per  cent;  during  that  period 
there  were  immense  additions  to  the  gold  and  silver  of  the  world. 
In  1873,  the  date  of  demonetization,  prices  began  to  fall.  From 
1873  to  1885  there  was  a  fall  of  30  per  cent.  This  is  according 
to  Dr.  Soetbeer's  tables. 

Mr.  Sauberback's  calculation  shows  that,  taking  the  average 
of  prices  from  1867  to  1877  as  the  basis,  there  has  been  a  fall  up 
to  1887  of  68  per  cent  in  the  general  range  of  ])rices;  and  the 
London  Economist  shows  that  this  fall  has  continued  up  to  1892, 
for  the  two  years  1890  and  1891,  at  the  rate  of  2*  per  cent  per 
annum.  These  figures  are  taken  from  the  speech  of  the  Senator 
from  Nevada  [Mr.  Jones]  in  the  conference  of  1892. 

But  we  need  no  tables  to  show  the  fall  in  the  great  agricultural 
products,  wheat  and  cotton;  both  have  fallen  to  a  point  below 
the  cost  of  production. 

COTTON  AND  WHEAT  GO  DOWN  WITH  SILVER. 

I  will,  however,  insert  in  my  remarks  at  this  point  a  table 
which  was  printed  in  the  remarks  of  my  colleague  [Mr.  Wal- 
thall] in  this  body  on  the  7th  instant,  from  which  it  appears 
that  there  was  pari  pa^su  an  even  fall  of  cotton  and  wheat  from 
1872  to  1892  along  with  the  fall  in  the  price  of  silver. 

The  table  is  as  follows: 


Year. 

Wheat. 

Cotton. 

Silver. 

Year. 

Wheat. 

Cotton. 

Silver. 

1872 

$1.47 
1.31 
1.43 
1.12 
1.24 
1.17 
1.34 
1.07 
1.25 
1.  n 
1.19 

Cents. 
19.3 
18.8 
1.5.4 
15 

12.9 
11.8 
11.1 
9.9 
11.5 
11.4 
11.4 

81.32 
1.29 
1.27 
1.24 
1.15 
1.20 
1.15 
1.12 
1.14 
1.13 
1.13 

1883 

$1.13 
1.07 
.86 
.87 
.89 
.85 
.90 
.83 
.85 
.80 

Cents. 
10.8 
10.5 
10.6 
9.9 
9.5 
9.8 
9.9 
10.2 
7 
7.3 

$1.11 

1873 

lSg4 

1.01 

1874 

1875 

1«H5 

1«86 

1.06 
.99 

1876 

1887 

.97 

1877 

1888 

.93 

1878. 

1889 

.93 

1879 

1830 

1.04 

1880  .     . 

18J1 

.90 

1881 

1892 

.86 

1882 

486 


9 

The  evils  of  demonetization  have  been  acknowledged  by  all 
parties.  Promises  of  redress,  as  I  have  shown,  have  been  freely 
made.  False  and  delusive  hopes  have  been  held  out  for  relief 
through  international  monetary  conferences. 

MONETARY  CONi'EltENCE  OF  1882. 

Three  of  these  have  been  held .  The  evil  to  the  world  of  silver 
demonetization  has  been  acknowledged  in  them,  but  nothing  has 
been  done.  In  1892,  November  22,  the  latest  monetary  confer- 
ence met.  The  delegates  fully  acknowledged  the  gravity  of  the 
situation  arising  from  silver  demonetization.  The  president  of 
the  conference  said  in  his  opening  address  that  the  delegates 
would  "  investigate  the  possibility  of  remedying  the  condition  of 
affairs,  of  which  none  mistake  the  gravity." 

Another  delegate  said: 

Whatever  personal  sympathies  we  may  feel,  we  must  admit  that  very  few 
of  us  have  been  able  to  ascree  with  the  stoic  opinion,  which  denies  the  exist- 
ence of  a  crisis,  and  concludes  very  logically  there  is  no  need  of  looking  for 
a  remedy.  *  *  *  It  disappears  before  the  reitc^rated  and  recent  declara- 
tions of  statesmen,  who  have  descriliod  the  evils  wnich  are  ruining  the  agri- 
culture and  destroying  the  industries  of  their  country  with  a  precision 
whose  signitlcance  it  is  impossible  to  mistake. 

And  the  president  of  the  conference,  on  adjourning  it,  said: 
At  the  moment  we  suspend  our  labors  we  carry  with  us,  I  regret  to  say, 
the  very  general  impression  of  an  uneasiness  which  calls  for  a  remedy. 

And  Mr.  Rothschild,  the  great  banker  and  monometallist,  and 
a  delegate  to  the  conference,  in  submitting  his  proposition  that 
European  nations  should  join  the  United  States  in  purchasing 
silver  as  a  palliative  for  what  was  considered  an  impending  mone- 
tary crisis,  said: 

I  need  not  remind  you  [the  conference]  that  the  stock  of  silver  in  the  world 
is  estimated  at  several  thousands  of  millions,  .and  if  this  conference  were  to 
break  up  without  arriving  at  any  definite  restill,  there  would  be  a  deprecia- 
tion in  the  value  of  that  commodity  which  it  would  be  frightful  to  contem- 
plate and  out  of  which  a  monetary  panic  would  ensue,  the  far-spreading 
effects  of  which  it  would  be  impossible  to  foretell. 

Those  were  the  opinions  expressed  in  the  conference .  The  con- 
ference adjourned,  without  action,  on  December  17, 1892,  till  the 
30th  of  May  of  the  present  year,  when  it  was  hoped  that  they 
would  be  reconvened  and  further  consideration  of  the  remedy 
would  be  resumed. 

He  who  will  study  the  deliberations  of  these  conferences  will 
be  struck  with  the  general  consensus  of  opinion,  that  silver  was 
a  necpssary  money  metal.  The  failure  to  agree  was  upon  some 
common  action  to  be  taken  by  the  principal  nations,  and  not  on 
the  necessity  for  silver  as  money. 

The  response  of  the  European  delegates  to  the  proposition  of 
the  United  States,  being  the  conclusion  of  the  conference  of 
1878,  stated,  as  their  judgment,  "that  it  is  necessary  to  main- 
tain in  the  world  the  monet:u'y  functions  of  silver,  as  well  as 
those  of  gold,  but  that  the  selection,  for  use  of  one  or  the  other 
of  the  two  metals,  or  of  both  simultaneously,  should  be  gov- 
erned by  the  special  position  of  each  state  or  group  of  states." 
(See  Conf.  rep.  of  1878,  p.  IG.'J.)  This  reference  to  the  action  of 
these  conferences  is  designed  to  show  and  doossbow  that  whilst 
they  failed  to  produce  results,  it  was  the  opinion  of  the  dele- 
gates, after  full  debate,  that  silver,  just  as  gold,  .^^hould  continue 
to  be  a  monetary  metal,  and  that  each  st:ite  was  to  judge  for  it- 
self how  it  would  use  either,  or  both,  according  to  its  special 
condition. 
486 


10 

TROUBLE  CAUSED   BY  DEMONETIZATION  OF    SILVER  AND  NOT   BT  SHERMAN 

LAW. 

The  quotations  from  the  last  conference  in  A.  D.  1892  show 
tliat  in  the  months  of  December  and  November  of  last  year  the 
ablest  men  in  monet;iry  affairs  in  ICuroiJO  concurred  v.-ith  the 
United  States  in  bolievin>r  that  the  demonetization  of  silver — as 
1  have  explained,  in  and  about  1873 — was  cause  for  serious  alarm 
apd  for  apprehension  of  a  monetary  crisis  of  the  gz'avest  char- 
acter, and  that  no  one  attributed  this  condition  to  the  Sherman 
law.  On  the  contrary,  great  weight  was  given  to  the  view 
that  silver  purchases  ought  to  be  increased — even  partipipated 
in  by  other  governments. 

It  \yas  suggested  by  no  on,e  that  purchases  under  that  law 
would  even  contribute  to  a  crisis.  It  was  thought  they  would 
tend  to  avoid  it. 

But,  Mr.  President,  the  evident  disposition  of  the  conference 
of  1892  to  consider  further  the  grave  questions  before  it,  the  gen- 
eral acknowledgment  that  the  monetary  situation  was  then, 
owing  to  the  demonetization  of  silver,  sei'ious  if  not  alarming, 
and  the  adjournment  till  the  30th  of  May  for  further  delibera- 
tion, produced  a  profound  impression  on  those  who  were  inter- 
ested in  keeping  money  scarce,  and  thereby  giving  it  more  and 
more  value  as  compared  with  commodities.  So  they  conspired 
again.  As  in  1873,  as  declared  by  Mr.  Carlisle,  and  as  1  think 
the  circumstances  I  have  mentioned  conclusively  show,  they  con- 
spired toprocure  demonetization.  So  now,  in  the  beginning  of  our 
present  troubles,  they  conspired  to  defeat  all  efforts  to  remedy 
that  great  wrong,  and  even  to  augment  the  disasters  which  had 
followed  demonetization  by  a  repeal  of  the  Sherman  law.  The 
people  of  the  United  States  had  endeavored,  as  I  have  shown, 
to  repeal  the  act  of  demonetization.  Their  efforts  liad  been 
baffled.  They  had  secjred  partial  relief  only.  In  1878  they  got 
the  small  and  inadequate  relief  of  the  Bland  act.  Like  a  sensi- 
ble and  practical  people,  as  they  are,  they  took  what  they  could 
get,  with  the  determination  that  they  would  not  cease  their  ef- 
forts to  gain  all  that  was  due  them.  They  persisted  from  year 
to  year,  but  their  efforts  were  futile.  At  last,  in  1890,  the  Sen- 
ate passed  another  bill  for  free  coinage  of  silver. 

It  was  not  passed  by  the  House,  but  such  action  was  taken  as 
resulted  in  a  conference  between  the  two  Houses.  The  confer- 
ence report  gave  the  act  of  1890,  called  the  Sherman  law.  The 
Democrats  voted  against  it.  The  free-coinage  Democrats — or  at 
least  I  did — so  voted,  not  because  it  provided  for  an  addition  to 
the  purchase  of  silver  and  consequently  to  the  volume  of  the 
currency,  but  because,  taking  the  whole  act  together,  it  was  not 
deemed  as  favorable  to  free  coinage  as  the  Bland  act,  which  it 
repealed. 

VOTE  AGAINST  REPEAL  OR  GIVE  UP  SILVER. 

Some  Senators  who  voted  against  the  Sherman  act  and  who 
now  oppose,  not  the  repeal  of  the  Sherman  act,  but  the  repeal  of 
one  clause  of  it,  are  criticised  as  being  inconsistent.  It  is  said 
as  an  excuse  for  Mr.  Carlisle's  change  of  position  upon  this  ques- 
tion, and  very  properly,  that  the  circumstances  differ.  How 
much,  sir,  do  the  circumstances  differ  now  as  to  those  of  us  who 
voted  against  the  Sherman  act  in  1890?  Then  we  had  a  choice 
betv,-een  the  Bland- Allison  act,  which  gave  us  certainly  $2,000,000 
of  silver  coinage  per  month  and  possibly  $4,000,000,  and  the 


11 

Sherman  law.    To-day  we  have  no  such  choice.     If  Senators  who 

are  advocating'  the  pcndinc,--  bill  dcsii-e  to  place  us  in  an  incon- 
sistent position,  they  ought  to  brin^-ina,  bill  repealing' the  whole 
of  the  Sherman  law  and  reviving  the  Bland-Allison  act  of  1878. 
But  they  do  not  do  that.  They  do  not  propose  even  to  repeal 
the  whole  act,  but  one  single  clause  of  it,  and  that  clause  the 
very  one  which  every  Senator  who  is  for  free  silver  approved 
of,  for  the  purchase  of  more  silver. 

We  free-coinageDemocrats  voted  against  it  for  the  reasons  T 
have  stated,  because  we  did  not  regard  it  as  being  as  favorable 
to  free  coinage  as  the  act  which  it  repealed.  It  did,  however, 
contribute  to  an  increase  of  currency. 

NATIONAL  BANKS  BENT  ON  REPEATj  Off  SHERMAN  LAW. 

It  was  assailed  by  the  mouometallists  and  bankers  from  the 
very  beginning.  The  national  banks,  who  had  shown  their  op- 
position to  the  coinage  of  any  amount  of  silver,  who  had  in  1878 
immediately  after  the  i^assage  of  the  Bland-Allison  act,  refused 
to  receive  silver  on  deposit,  and  to  use  it  in  the  clearing  house 
and  exchanges,  and  who  were  only  compelled  by  an  act  of  Con- 
gress in  1882  to  do  that  thing,  of  course  opposed  the  Sherman 
law. 

It  was  assailed  by  the  monometallists  from  the  beginning. 
They  had  become  enamored  of  the  gold  standard  of  Europe. 
The  falling  prices  of  cortimodities,  consequent  on  the  increased 
purchasing  jiower  of  gold,  augmented  largely  the  v.-ealth  of  those 
owning  money  and  money  obligations.  Through  the  insuffi- 
ciency of  the  metallic  currency,  and  the  opportunity  thus  af- 
forded to  increase  the  devices  I  have  alluded  to  for  supplying 
this  deficiency,  these  men  had  acquired  unlimited  power  over 
the  finances  of  the  country.  It  was  determined  to  reverse  the 
action  of  Congress  in  enacting  the  Sherman  law,  and  thereby 
prevent  a  further  increase  of  the  volume  of  the  currency  for 
which  it  provided. 

Mr.  President,  it  had  not  been  regarded  by  the  national  banks, 
though  thoy  opposed  it,  that  the  Sherman  act  contained  the 
dangers  now  ascribed  to  it.  Nor  did  the  business  men  of  the 
country  have  that  opinion.  Both  acted  under  it  exactly  as  if 
it  were  a  safe  and  sound  financial  measure  free  from  danger. 
The  act  went  into  operation  in  August,  1890.  That  the  business 
men  and  money-owners  had  faith  in  the  financial  situation  as 
fixed  by  the  Sherman  law  is  shown  by  their  deposits  in  the 
banks.  When  trouble  and  disaster  are  anticipated  money  is 
hoarded — as  we  have  reason  to  know  in  the  last  few  months — 
withdrawn  from  banks,  not  deposited  in  them. 

The  deposits  in  national  banks  incrc;'-fed  in  the  year  ending 
October  2,  1890— a  date  nearly  three  months  after  the  passiigc  of 
the  act — o\-er  the  deposits  of  the  preceding  year  by$lOS,;{0(),000; 
and  in  the  next  year  the  deposits  were  about  the  same  amount; 
and  in  the  next  year,  ending  September  30,  1S!)2.  they  were  still 
further  inci'eased,  in  addition  to  the  increase  of  the  year  ending 
October  2,  1800,  by  the  sum  of  $243,800,000. 

BANKS  HAD  NO  FEAR  OF  SHERMAN  LAW. 

This  shows  conclusively  there  was  no  fear  on  the  part  of  the 
business  men.  The  banks  themselves  exhibited  their  confidence 
in  the  finances  by  increilsing  their  capital  stock  by  $64,000,(Ki0over 
the  stock  in  the  year  ending  September  30,  1889.     But  more 

486 


12 

than  this,  as  if  to  show  their  entire  confidence  in  the  monetary 
system  as  tixed  by  that  act,  they  increased  their  lonnsto  $2,171.- 
000,000  in  the  year  ending  Se))tember  'M,  1892,  as  compared  with 
$1,805,700,000  in  the  year  ending  September  30,  1S89. 

The  business  of  the  banks  in  deposits  and  loans  and  the  in- 
crease of  capital  stock  showed  the  utmost  confidence  in  the 
monetary  situation  under  the  Slierman  law. 

The  exports  and  imports  of  gold  during  the  year  ending  June 
;]0,  1891,  and  June  30,  1892,  exhibit  the  same  confidence.  In  the 
first  year  named  the  net  exports  were  $63,590,tit)G,  and  the  next 
year  succeeding  that,  having  another  year  of  experience  under 
the  Sherman  law.  the  net  exports  were  only  $494,873.  This 
confidence  as  exhibited  by  exports  and  imports  of  gold  contin- 
ued up  to  and  including  the  month  of  November,  1892,  on  the  22d 
day  of  which  month  the  international  monetary  conference  met. 

The  gross  exports  of  gold  for  October,  1892,  were  only  $484,- 
250,  and  in  November  only  $1,138,647.  The  imports  for  these 
two  months  show  a  net  gain  in  gold  to  the  country  of  $4,572,- 
645.  The  imports  exceed  the  exports  by  that  amount.  But 
suddenly  there  was  a  change.  The  international  conference  was 
in  session,  with  the  sentiments  favorable  to  a  more  enlarged  use 
of  silver,  which  I  have  mentioned.  They  determined  to  meet 
again  on  May  30,  to  try  to  come  to  an  agreement  favorable  to 
this  enlarged  use.  England's  delegates,  through  Mr.  Roths- 
child, had  expressed  the  gravest  apprehensions  of  disaster  if  no 
agreement  was  reached.  The  United  States  had  c.illed  the  con- 
ference. A  new  President  had  been  elected,  supposed  to  be  not 
favorable  to  the  Sherman  law.  The  Ijanks  had  the  power,  in 
conjunction  with  their  allies,  to  absolutely  dominate  the  mone- 
tary situation. 

The  situation  itself,  occasioned,  as  I  have  shown,  by  the  de- 
monetization of  silver,  increased  this  power.  Apprehensions 
had  been  expressed  by  the  greatest  authorities  on  finance  in  the 
world  of  a  monetary  crisis,  certain  to  come  at  no  distint  day, 
not  from  the  purchase  of  silver,  but  from  a  too  small  purchase 
of  silver.  The  financial  world  was  thus  in  a  condition  in  which 
distrust  could  be  easily  fomented. 

THE  MOSEY  POWERS  CONSPIRE  TO  REPEAXi  THE  SHERMAN  LAW. 

So,  it  was  resolved  that  such  a  condition  of  affairs  should  be 
produced  as  would  compel  a  repeal  of  the  Sherman  act,  and 
thereby  destroy  all  chances  of  remonetizing  silver,  and  thus  give 
to  the  banks  and  their  allies  the  profitable  business  of  supplying 
the  needed  currency  at  their  will,  contracting  or  expanding, 
raising  or  reducing  prices,  as  they  should  see  proper. 

CRISIS  PRODUCED  TO  PREVENT  MONETARY  CONEERENCB. 

Whilst  the  conference  was  in  session  the  exports  of  gold  were 
suddenly  i-aised  to  $12,879,727  for  the  month  of  December,  the 
imports' being  only  $1,540,538. 

Whether  this  sudden  increase  in  the  exports  was  the  result  of 
a  preconceived  plan  to  produce  a  panic,  or  whether  coming  from 
the  course  of  trade  and  excessive  monetary  demands  in  Europe 
it  was  afterward  seized  upon  to  produce  distrust  and  a  consequent 
panic,  it  is  difficult  to  determine  accurately.  However  this  may 
be,  the  large  exports  were  at  once  made  the  ground  for  either 
inducing  or  aggravating  the  seriousness  of  the  situation. 

After  December.  1892,  there  was  a  continuous  monthly  increase 

486 


13 

of  exports  of  gold  to  the  30th  of  May,  1893,  reaching  $19,148,064 
in  April,  and  in  May  $16,914,317.  Then  fi-ora  the  day  on  which 
the  international  conference  was  to  miet— the  conference  having 
been  abandoned — the  exports  fell  suddenly  to  $1^,771,220  in  June, 
and  since  then  there  have  been  continuous  net  importations  of 
gold  to  the  amount  of  many  millions;  I  believe  about  fifty-four 
millions  several  days  ago. 

The  Senate  will  note  that  the  sudden  ceasing  of  the  large  ex- 
portation of  gold  occurred  on  the  very  day  when  this  conference 
was  to  meet,  when  it  was  ascertained  that  the  conference  would 
not  meet. 

The  crisis  had  been  produced  and  the  conference  had  failed. 
During  all  this  time  the  country  heard  it  announced  over  and 
over  again  in  the  metropolitan  press  and  by  the  banks  and  their 
agents  that  all  this  trouble  came  from  the  Sherman  law;  and  in 
connection  with  this  was  a  demand  not  only  for  the  repeal  of  the 
act,  but  also  for  the  issue  of  new  bonds  with  which  to  buy  gold, 
and,  what  was  equally  significant  and  important,  to  furnish  a 
basis  for  the  additional  issue  of  national- bank  notes  which  the 
crisis  thus  produced  seemed  to  demand.  They  determined  to 
have  the  exclusive  right  to  furnish  the  currency  for  the  country, 
and  in  such  quantities  as  they  might  see  proper. 

And  thus  these  corporations,  skillfully  taking  advantage  of  a 
situation  made,  by  the  demonetization  of  silver,  favorable  to  the 
successor  their  machinations,  filled  the  world  with  a  clamor  that 
the  purchase  of  silver  under  the  Sherman  law  was  the  cause  of 
the  disasters  which  they  had  themselves  produced. 

I  am  glad  to  know  that  the  able  chairman  of  the  Committee 
on  Finance,  Mr.  Voorhees,  fully  concurs  in  the  view  I  have 
expressed  as  to  the  cause  of  the  gold  exports.  He  used  the  fol- 
lowing language: 

The  shipments  of  gold  which  took  place  from  this  country  in  the  last  four 
or  five  mouths  must  be  accounted  for,  to  my  mind,  In  a  different  way.  They 
were  a  part  of  the  same  plan  which  attenipte.l  to  sack  the  Treasury  of  its 
gold  reserve  fund,  to  create  distrust,  fear,  agitation,  panic,  and  a  withdrawal, 
::s  far  as  possible,  of  all  moneyin  circulation:  and  all  this  to  be  aciompanied 
by  a  concerted  outcry  from  terror-stricken  business  circles,  and  from  the 
whole  national-banking  system,  that  nothing  can  restore  contldence  and 
save  the  public  credit  except  the  issuance  of  at  least  $300,000,000  of  interest- 
bearing  Government  bonds. 

To  which  I  will  add,  and  the  repeal  of  the  Sherman  law. 

I  add  also  the  testimony  of  the  distinguished  Senator  from  New 
York  [Mr.  HiLL]  to  the  same  elt'ect. 

The  Senator,  whilst  stating  that  it  can  not  be  denied  that  the 
Sherman  law  has  been  at  least  in  part,  and  possibly  the  most 
largely,  instrumental  in  producing  the  existing  complications, 
also  stated,  in  most  graphic  and  eloquent  language,  the  part  that 
had  been  borne  by  the  gold  monometallists. 

WHAT  SENATOR  HILIj  SAYS  OF  THE  PANIC. 

I  quote  from  his  speech: 

Some  portion  of  the  present  panic  may  be  traced  to  a  concerted  effort  on 
the  part  of  numerous  monometallists  to  produce  It  in  order  further  to 
discredit  silver  aw  a  part  of  the  standard  money  of  the  country.  That  fact 
is  apparent  everywhere  we  turn. 

And  among  their  acts  which  contributed  to  this  result  he  men- 
tioned: 

They  encouraged  the  hoarding  of  money;  they  inaugurated  the  policy  of 
refusing  loans  to  the  I'.oople.  even  upon  the  besi  security;   they  circulated 
false  petitions,  passed  absurd  and  alarming  resolutions ;  predicted  the  direst 
486 


u 

disaster,  attacked  tho  creditor  the  Government,  sought  to  exact  a  premirqn 
upon  currency,  and  attempted  In  every  way  to  spread  distrust  broadcast 
throughout  the  laud. 

He  continues.    J  quote  his  languog^e  literally: 

The  best  tiuaucial  system  in  tho  world  could  not  stand  such  an  organized 
and  vicious  attack  upon  it.  These  disturbers,  these  promoters  of  the  public 
peril,  represent  largely  the  creiliior  class,  the  men  who  desire  to  appreciate 
the  gold  dollar  lu  tirdor  to  subserve  their  own  sellish  interest,  men  who 
revel  in  hard  times,  men  who  drive  harsh  bargains  with  their  fellow-men  In 
periods  of  Jiuancial  distress,  and  men  wholly  unfamiliar  with  the  principles 
of  monetary  science. 

It  is  not  strange  that  the  present  monetary  panic  has  been  induced,  in- 
tensified, and  protracted  by  reason  of  thoii-  malign  influences. 

But  it  will  be  objected  to  this  view,  that  tho  banks  and  their 
allies  would  not  combine  to  produce  a  situation  by  which  they 
themselves  were  to  be  losers.  From  circumstances  hereafter  to 
be  stated,  it  is  not  certain  that  the  great  banks  in  New  York 
who  have  the  power  to  produce  the  crisis  and  did  produce  it 
have  been  losers.  But  if  they  have,  the  ansvrer  to  that  view  is 
contained  in  the  following  extract  from  the  same  speech  of  the 
Senator  from  Indiana: 

If  it  be  assorted  that  some  of  the  banks  have  therefore  suffered  and  fallen 
by  the  overthrow  of  public  and  private  confidence  which  has  taken  place, 
it  only  adds  one  more  illustration  to  the  well-known  fact  that  a  demon  of 
destruction  once  raised  sometimes  escapes  tho  control  of  its  masters  and 
turns  and  rends  them.  *  *  *  In  this  attempt  to  force  the  Government 
into  the  attitude  of  a  borrower,  the  banks  have  endangered  their  own  credit, 
and  in  many  instances  totally  lost  tho  confidence  of  those  who  trusted  them. 

And  the  distinguished  Senator  from  NeAV  York,  immediately 
following  the  quotation  I  have  made  from  his  speech,  expressed 
a  similar  view  in  these  words: 
Having  contributed  much  to  bring  about  the  present  exigency,  these  men— 
The  monometallists  and  creditors  described  in  the  extract  be- 
fore quoted — 

are  now  tinable  to  control  it.  They  have  sown  to  the  wind,  and  we  are  now 
reaping  the  whirhvind. 

So  it  is  that  the  present  storm  which  has  been  raised  will  not 
be  still  at  the  bidding  of  the  necromancers  who  called  it  into 
being. 

As  in  the  outset,  on  the  eve  of  the  bursting  of  the  storm  upon  the 
country  the  banks  were  acting,  as  has  been  shown,  as  if  there  was 
to  be  no  trouble  which  they  could  not  master,  so  in  its  progress 
they  up  to  a  late  date  exhibited  the  same  confidence  in  their  abil- 
ity to  control  it.  I  mention  that  as  another  evidence  that  they 
got  it  up.  They  increased  their  loans  so  that  in  nine  months 
they  were  $2,141,400,000  from  October  2,  1892,  to  May  4, 1893,  as 
against  $2,171,000,000  in  the  preceding  twelve  months,  almost  as 
much  in  nine  months  as  in  tlie  foregoing  twelve.  At  the  same 
time  there  was  a  decrease  in  their  siDccie  and  legal-tender  re- 
serve; and  their  percentage  of  cash  to  net  deposits  was  exactly 
the  same  as  it  was  in  the  year  ending  September  25,  1891.  This 
proves  beyond  controversy  that  tho  banks  had  the  utmost  confi- 
dence in  their  ability  to  ride  the  storm  which  they  had  raised, 
that  it  would  down  at  their  bidding.  They  were  lending  and 
gaining  just  as  if  no  storm  had  arisen. 

But,  sir,  whilst  it  may  be  conceded  that  the  contagion  of  dis- 
trust has  been  spreading;  that  the  financial  crisis  produced,  as 
I  have  explained,  has  gotten  beyond  the  control  of  those  who 
evoked  it,  yet  it  is  by  no  means  certain  that  it  has  entailed  loss 
and  disaster  on  the  banks. 

486 


15 

BANKS  LOSE  NOTniNC;  BY  THE  CRISIS. 

If  thero  has  been  a  want  of  confidence  in  their  solvency,  and, 
therefore,  a  wish  on  the  p:irt  of  depositors  to  withdraw  their 
money,  tliatwish  has  beenmetbyaflat  refusal  to  pay  them.  For 
the  0  ish  deposited  and  p:iyabic  on  demand,  and  which  the  banks 
had  loaned  as  their  own  at  a  largo  interost,  only  the  certified 
cheeks  of  the  banksare  tendered  to  the  depositor.  For  his  money 
and  the  promise  of  the  bank  to  pay  on  demand  he  gets  another 
promise  of  the  bank  to  pay,  when  it  shall  suit  its  convenience. 
These  checks  in  many  places  circulate  as  money.  So  desperate 
is  the  condition  of  the  peo]>le  from  want  of  money  that  they  take 
as  currency  the  dishonored  obligations  of  the  banks  Avho  are  the 
authors  of  their  ruin. 

But  the  banks  hive  other  resources  for  maintaining  them- 
selves than  by  refusing  to  pay  on  demand  their  debts  to  de- 
positors; they  manufacture  and  ui-e  without  authority  of  law, 
and  contrary  to  law,  the  currency  to  help  them  out  of  their  dis- 
tress. They  resort  to  the  ingenious  device  of  issuing  what  is 
called  clearing-house  certificates,  which  are  not  allowed  to  cir- 
culate among  the  people,  but  are  kept  for  use  exclusively  by  the 
bafiks,  to  enable  them  to  persist  in  locking  up  the  currency  by 
their  refusal  to  pay  depositors.  These  certificates  in  New  York 
amount  to  over  $;J8,000,()00.  What  is  the  total  amount  in  the 
whole  country  I  am  unable  to  say,  but  it  is  probably  not  less  than 
$l(Rl,OU(',000.  ' 

The  power  of  the  banks  for  evil,  to  create  monetary  troubles, 
is  so  grcit  tliat  even  this  body  of  ambassadors  from  the  States, 
the  great  tribunal  in  which  the  rights,  the  dearest  interests, 
the  pi-osperity  and  happiness  of  the  American  people  are  sup- 
posed to  be,  aiid  I  believe  are,  the  great  end  of  our  deliberations, 
dares  not  to  inquire  into  these  illegal  transactions  lest  their  of- 
ficial exposure  shall  increase  the  distress  which  the  sinning 
banks  have  brought  upon  the  people. 

Now,  Mr.  President,  up  to  this  point  I  have  discussed  the 
agency  of  the  banks  and  their  allies  in  producing  the  present 
panic,  and  endeavored  to  show  their  power  to  do  it,  as  coming 
from  the  conditions  which  were  peculiar  to  the  time  at  which 
this  crisis  commenced. 

THE  SINGLE  GOLD  STANDARD  BREEDS    MONETARY   CRISIS   AND  DANGEROUS 
TO  PROSPERITY. 

Now,  I  procsed  to  show  that  our  present  monetary^  system, 
based  on  gold  as  the  only  money  of  ultimate  redemption,  is  at 
all  times  and  under  all  circumstances  favorable  to  the  produc- 
tion of  monetary  crises,  whether  they  come  from  acts  of  folly  on 
the  p.vrt  of  governments,  of  traders  or  bankers,  or  may  be  de- 
literately  designed.  Sir,  I  mean  to  say  that  the  present  system 
is  a  constant  menace  and  ever-impending  danger  to  the  pros- 
perity of  the  human  race. 

SCARCITY  OF  METALLIC  MONEY  INCREASES  THE  POWER  OF  THE  BANKS 

Great,  sir,  as  is  this  power  of  the  b:mks  and  their  allies,  the 
moneyed  classes,  they  could  not  at  their  will  dominate  and  con- 
trol tiie  business  of  the  world  unless  there  was  a  real  and  per- 
manent deficiency  in  actual  or  metallic  money.  The  smaller  the 
amount  of  real  money  in  circulation  or  in  existence,  the  more  is 
the  need  for  paper  money  and  those  contrivances  and  devices  for 
economy  in  the  actual  use  of  money  which  are  so  much  relied  on 
by  the  monometallists.    Bank  paper  and  bank  contrivances  for 


16 

minimizing  the  use  of  money  are  the  means  by  which  the  power 
of  the  moneyed  cl-isses  is  itiade  nbs^olute.  They  are  despots  with 
autocratic  sway  in  the  re  ilm  of  trade  and  production. 

Hence,  sir,  the  proposition  is  now  mide  openly  for  the  first 
time  in  the  United  States  by  any  considerable  number  of  men  to 
dispense  entirely  with  nil  ver  as  money  of  full  debt-payinj?  power, 
to  degrade  it  to  mere  token  or  subsidiary  money,  depending  for 
its  value,  like  paper,  upon  its  redeomability  in  gold.  And  in  this 
connection  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  as  silver  money  is  made 
subordin.ate.  as  it  is  now  in  the  United  States  and  in  Europe, 
dependent  upon  redemption  in  gold,  as  a  necessity  for  its  parity 
with  that  met  il,  gold  has  imposed  on  it  an  additional  demand 
and  duty  whereby  it  is  made  still  more  valuable  in  comparison 
with  commodities,  thus  causing  prices  to  fall  more  and  more. 

NOT  MONEY  ENOUGH  IN  THE  WORLD  TO  TRANSACT  BUSINESS. 

That  there  is  a  deficiency  in  the  amount  of  gold  to  do  the 
world's  business  is  generally  conceded,  at  least  in  this  Chamber. 
It  is  needful,  however,  to  a  clear  conception  of  the  questions  aris- 
ing on  this  bill  that  the  facts  and  figures  showing  this  deficiency 
and  its  extent  should  be  set  out. 

By  a  Treasury  circular  dated  the  16th  of  August,  1893,  it  ap- 
pears that  all  the  gold  coin  in  the  world  is  $3,582,605,000,  say,  in 
round  numbers,  thi'ee  and  one-half  billions  of  dollars.  This  state- 
ment refers  to  countries  containing  a  population  of  1,220,000,000. 
Deduct  the  population  of  China,  South  and  Central  America, 
and  Mexico,  aggregating  4')0, 000,000 — all  now  on  a  silver  basis 
and  also  India,  which  is  now  somewhat  uncertain  as  to  its  fu- 
ture monetary  policy — we  have  in  round  numbers  700,000.000  of 
silver-using  people  to  be  deducted,  which  leaves  522,000,000  of 
people  for  the  gold-using  countries.  Then  giving  these  coun- 
tries all  the  gold,  say  three  and  one-half  billion  dollars,  we  have 
that  sum  on  which  to  do  the  foreign  commerce  of  the  civilized 
world  (excluding  China  and  India)  which  in  1><!)0  in  round  num- 
bers amounted  with  that  exclusion  to  about  twenty-four  and  a 
half  billions  of  dollars,  or  about  $7  of  foreign  commerce  in  these 
countries  to  one  of  all  gold  in  the  world.  In  addition  it  is  to 
furuish  the  bisis  for  the  immense  internal  traflSc  of  the  nations, 
as  1  will  further  explain. 

In  1890  the  total  tonnage  of  the  world  of  sea-voyaging  vessels 
over  lOU  tons  in  burden  amounted  in  round  numbers  to  24,000.- 
000.  In  this  vessels  under  10  J  tons— canal  boats  and  steamboats- 
are  not  counted.  All  these  great  ships  making  this  enormous 
tonnage  were  built  with  money,  are  kept  in  repair  by  money, 
are  manned,  equipped,  and  navigated  by  money.  How  much,  who 
can  tell? 

Then  we  come  to  the  railroads  of  the  world. 

In  1890  the  mileage  of  the  railroads  fand  the  mileage  has 
largely  increased  since  then)  was  in  round  numbers: 

Miles. 

In  Europe 137,000 

In  North  America 183.000 

In  South  America 16,000 

In  Asia 19,000 

In  Africa-. 4,000 

In  Australia 12,000 

Total 371,000 

486 


^ 


17 

These  railways  cost  enormous  millions  in  their  building',  and 
annually  cost  many  other  millions  in  repairs  and  running  ex- 
penses. 

It  is  difficult  to  estimate  separately  the  internal  traffic  from 
the  foreign  traffic  which  goes  over  these  roads.  There  are  .some 
duplications  which  ought  to  be  ;iccount:;d  for.  I  have  only  par- 
tial st  itistics  of  the  tonnage  c  irried  over  the  railroads  of  other 
countries.  We  can  approximato  it  by  compaiison  with  our  own 
and  with  other  countries  of  whose  traffic  we  have  statistics. 

In  order  to  show  how  insufficient  is  the  world's  supply  of  money 
for  the  world's  needs,  and  that  this  insufficiency  is  in  itself  a 
condition  in  which  financial  panics  are  easily  created.  I  proceed 
now  to  state  these  conditions  in  the  United  States,  and  will  then 
notice  the  like  conditions  of  the  world. 

VOLUME  OF  MONEY  INSUFFICIENT. 

The  total  money  in  circulation  in  the  United  States  on  July  1, 
1893,  as  shown  by  a  Treasury  statement,  is  $1,601,347,187,  or 
$24.44  per  capita  of  our  population. 

On  this  and  with  this  the  immense  business  I  shall  now  pro- 
ceed to  set  out  must  be  conducted. 

I  take  the  statistics  for  the  United  States  for  1892,  and  show 
there  were  in  round  numbei's  170,000  miles  of  railroad,  over 
which  was  carried  in  that  year  750,000,000  tons  of  freight.  There 
are  no  statistics  showing  the  value  of  this  freight.  I  am  in- 
formed that  Mr.  Poor,  the  author  of  Poor's  Raili-oad  Manual, 
values  it  at  $150  per  ton,  but  my  informant,  a  very  intelligent 
business  man  of  New  York,  says  this  is  manifestly  too  high. 

I  have  thought  it  was  nearly  correct  to  put  the  valuation,  at 
wholesale  prices,  at  one-third  this  amount — say  $50  per  ton. 
Then  adding  the  tonnage  carried  in  1890  in  internal  commerce,  by 
steamers,  sailing  vessels,  and  canals  and  express  companies,  alto- 
gether one  hundred  and  ninety  millions,  we  have  for  total,  ton- 
nage exclusive  of  foreign  commerce  nine  hundred  and  forty 
millions,  which,  at  $50  per  ton,  would  be  $47,000,000,000  as  the 
value  of  freight  carried  on  our  railroads  and  internal  water 
ways.  Deduct  for  duplications  all — nob  apart,  but  all — of  our 
foreign  commerce,  which  was  in  the  year  ending  June  -SO,  1892, 
little  less  than  two  billions — but  say  two  billions  of  dollars — we 
have  $45,000,000,000  as  the  value  of  the  internal  commerce  of  the 
United  States  in  one  year,  as  carried  on  railroads  and  water- 
craft;  not  the  whole  of  it,  but  only  that  carried  by  these  common 
carriers.  If  any  man  supposes  these  figures  too  high ,  let  me  re- 
mind him  that  the  clearings  in  the  clearing  houses  of  fifty- 
seven  cities  of  the  United  States,  and  there  are  clearing  houses 
in  sixty-one,  but  I  have  no  returns  from  the  other  four,  in  1892 
amounted  to  over  $61,000,000,000.  But  this  large  sum  of  $45,- 
000,000,000  reoresents  only  the  wholesale  prices,  and  shows  only 
the  need  for  money  for  the  one  sale  from  the  wholesaler  to  the 
purchaser  from  him. 

It  would  be  a  moderate  estimate  to  say  that  on  the  averagfe 
there  are  three  necessary  sales  of  commodities,  from  the  pro- 
ducer to  the  consumer;,  not  counting  the  speculative  s;iles, which 
now  are  immense.  Each  of  these  three  sales  requires  money — 
or  the  representative  of  money  based  on  money.  So  that  it 
would  be  a  low  estimate  to  state  the  amount  of  sales  in  the 
internal  traffic  of  this  country  based  on  commodities  transported 
by  railroads  and  water  craft  would  annually  reach  $135,000,000,- 
486 2 


18 

000,  not  countingr  the  increased  price?  charged  by  each  dealer  as 
profits  on  sales  mudo  b}'  him.  the  ii^greg-dto  of  which,  when 
retail  trade  is  transiioted  on  u  credit  basis,  would  equal  the 
wholesale  price.  This  estimate  takes  no  account  of  those  im- 
mense transactions  embracing  commodities  and  services  ex- 
changed  for  money,  and  which  contribute  no  part  to  the  tonnage 
transported  by  raih'oads  and  water  craft.  How  much  this  is 
can  not  be  accurately  estimated,  but  that  it  is  immense  a  little 
reflection  will  teach  us. 

There  must  also  be  added  taxes— national.  State  and  munici- 
pal— interest  on  public  and  private  and  corporate  debts. 

The  total  debt  of  the  railroads  in  the  United  States  for  the 
years  1889  and  1890  was  S5, 352,1 17, :U0. 

Interest  on  that  at  6  per  cent  is  $321,127,042.40. 

The  total  public  debt  of  the  United  States— the  States  and  the 
counties— in  1890  was  over  S2, 000,090,000.  Interest  on  that  at  0 
per  cent  is  $120,000,000.  In  this  is  not  included  the  debt  duo  by 
towns  and  cities,  which  is  probably  as  much  more.  The  debt  of 
the  city  of  New  York  alone  is  over  $157,000,000. 

The  total  mortgage  individual  indebtedness  in  twenty-two 
States  as  shown  by  the  census  returns  is  $4,563,433,186,  and  the 
estimate  by  the  Census  Bureau  for  the  remaining  twenty^six 
States,  the  returns  for  which  have  not  been  tabulated,  is  $1,327,- 
565,122,  making  total  mortgage  indebtedness  of  private  individ- 
uals $5,890,998,302.  The  annual  interest  on  that  sum  at  8  per 
cent— a  low  estimate — comes  within  a  small  fraction  of  $480,000.- 
000  more. 

Of  course  the  private  indebtedness  of  individuals,  not  covei'ed 
by  mortgages,  can  not  be  ascertained,  but  it  would  be  a  low  esti- 
mate to  put  it  at  several  billions  more,  probably  exceeding  the 
mortgage  debt. 

I  submit  here  a  table  prepared  at  the  Census  Office  in  relation 
to  certain  manufactures,  in  cities  containing  over  20,000  inhabi- 
tants, which  I  ask  to  be  printed,  as  Exhibit  A  in  an  Appendix. 

And  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  these  manufacturing  statis- 
tics do  not  include  business  done  in  towns  and  cities  comprising 
less  than  20,000  inhabitants.  This  excluded  business  would  prob- 
ably equal  the  amount  stated  in  the  table. 

It  excludes  certainly  all  the  manufactures  in  Mississippi,  and 
the  major  part  in  all  the  Southern  States,  and  a  large  percentage 
in  the  other  States,  and  the  immense  products  of  handicraft  all 
over  the  Union. 

This  table  shows  the  total  wages  paid  in  manufactures  to  be  — 

For  a  year $1,559,065,130 

Other  expenses  for  the  year. 456,  877,  o62 

Total--- --- 2,015.942,522 

Add  cost  of  raw  material 3,329,377,893 

But  thcso  establishments  make  and  pay  out  large 
dividends,  which  are  not  less  than  (3  per  cent  per 
annum;  add  this,  say 237,843,877 

Making  total  of- - - 5,583,163,392 

As  the  annual  need  for  money  in  these  establishments. 

I'he  mineral  products  of  the  United  States,  exclusive  of  the 
precious  metals,  in  1889  amounted  to  $587,230,662. 

486 


19 

The  cost  of  this  would  be  low  at  half  this  amount,  say  $293.- 
615,331. 

If  this  be  added,  as  it  ouoht,  we  have  a  grand  total  for  the 
yearly  need  of  money  in  manufactories  in  cities  of  over  20, 000  in- 
habitants and  in  mining  of  $5,870,778,723. 

The  total  agricultural  production  in  twenty-eight  States  and 
Territories  in  1889,  as  shown  by  the  census,  is  $1,300,000,000. 
The  returns  from  the  other  States  ;!nd  Territories  hav;;  not  been 
tabulated,  but  in  187!)  their  production  was  in  a  small  fraction 
of  $1,000,000,000.  Add  20  per  cent  for  increase  from  I879to  1889, 
and  it  makes  $1,250,000,000;  making  total  agricultural  produc- 
tion, in  1889,  $2,750,000,000. 

Nearly  half  a  decade  has  elapsed  since  1889,  to  which  these  fig- 
ures are  applicable,  and  it  would  be  a  low  estimate  to  increase 
them  for  the  present  year  by  20  per  cent,  which  would  make 
them  amount  to  over  $3,000,000,000. 

As  it  is  known  that  in  the  most  important  crops  the  value 
does  not  exceed  the  cost  of  production,  it  would  be  safe  to  say 
that  the  wages  alone  paid  in  agriculture  amounted  to  25  per 
cent  of  the  product,  say  $750,000,000  per  annum,  which  is  less 
than  one-half  the  wages  paid  by  manufacturers  as  above  stated. 

The  total  gross  earnings  of  all  the  railroads  in  the  United 
States  in  1892  was  $1,191,867,099.  Of  this  sum  $839,039,094  were 
paid  in  operating  expenses,  very  largely  as  wages,  requiring 
payment  in  cash. 

And  of  these  earnings,  $293,559,476  came  from  passengers, 
which  is  outside  of  the  traffic  of  these  roads,  which  I  have  esti- 
mated for  as  internal  traffic  of  the  country. 

Sir,  these  immense  sums,  relating  to  the  annual  and  dailj'  use 
for  money  in  the  principal  business  operations  of  this  Union, 
may,  so  far  as  capable  of  approximate  specifications,  be  stated 
as  follows: 

Commerce  carried  on  over  railroads  and  watei*- 

ways  at  wholesale  value $45,000,000,000 

Three    sales  of   these  without  estimating  for 

profits... 135,000,000,000 

To  this  may  bo  added: 

Wages  paid  in  manufactures,  Exhibit  A 1,  559, 065, 130 

Miscellaneous  expenses  in  manufactures 456,  877,  392 

Cost  of  raw  material 3,329,777,893 

Interest  on  dividends  on  capital  ($3,904,004,027) 

at  6  per  cent 237,843,877 

Totalforayear 5,583,164,292 

Agricultural  wages 750, 000, 000 

Railroads  in  the  United  States,  expense  of  run- 
ning  839,039,094 

Dividends  paid 81,530,  811 

Interest  paid  ..-. - 229,909,292 

Total,  included  in  gross  receipts  of  ($1,191, - 
867,099) 1,150,485.797 

486 


20 

I  next  come  to  the  public  debts: 

States  and  Territories  of  the  United  States $223, 107,  883 

Debts  of  counties 141,950,000 


Interest  on  same  at  6  per  cent 21,  903, 572 

Add  one-tenth  for  annual  payments  on  principal 
debt 36,505,788 

Total  of  annual  needs  for  money  on  these 
debts - 58,409,350 

Mortgages,  jorivate  debts,  total  for  all  States 
and  Territories 5,890,998,302.00 

Interest  on  same  for  a  year,  8  per  cent 461,  279,  864. 16 

Add  one-fifth   of   principal  for    partial  pay- 
ment each  year 1,178,996.660.00 


Making--. -..-    1,639,479,524.00 

of  annual  use  for  money  on  these,  or  more  than  the  whole  circula- 
tion of  the  United  States. 

Then,  sir,  there  is  to  be  added  the  private  debts — not  mort- 
gages—created during  the  year,  and  not  here  estimated,  but  as 
I  believe  to  be  equal  to  the  mortgage  indebtedness,  of  $5,000,- 
000,000.  There  are  $4,900,000,000,  and  moi'e,  due  by  the  banks 
to  depositors,  and  over  $4,300,000,000  due  to  the  banks. 

Then  we  must  add  the  revenue — national.  State,  county,  and 
city. 

The  total  gross  receipts  of  the  United  States  Treasury  for  the 
year  ending  June  30,  1891,  was  $765,821,305.  It  was  for  the  year 
ending  June  30,  1892,  $736,401,296;  say  an  average  of  $750,000,- 
000  a  year. 

The  total  revenue  of  thirty-eight  States,  as  shown  by  the  cen- 
sus of  1890,  was  $164,984,901. 

This  does  not  include  local  taxes — as  county,  school  districts, 
poor  taxes,  road  and  bridge  taxes.  I  can  not  get  the  statistics 
of  these,  but  from  observation,  as  to  these  taxes  in  my  own 
State— which  has  no  large  cities— and  from  information  de- 
rived from  residents  of  other  States,  it  would  bo  a  veryconserv- 
ative  estimate  to  place  these  local  taxes  at  three  times  the 
amount  of  the  State  revenues.  This  would  add  $494,954,703,  or 
a  grand  total  of  all  State  revenues,  $655,049,604.  Add  revenues 
of  United  States  Treasury,  $750,000,000;  making  total  public 
revenues  $1,405,049,604;  about  three  times  the  amount  of  gold 
in  circulation  in  the  United  States,  and  a  sum  but  little  under 
the  total  circulation  of  all  kinds  of  money  of  the  United  States — 
and  if  the  city  taxation  were  included  it  would  very  greatly  ex- 
ceed that  circulation. 

If  we  tabulate  all  these  various  items  of  annual  needs  for 
money,  we  have  a  total  for  the  United  States  alone  as  follows: 

In  manufacturing,  mining,  agricultural  wages,  and  railroad 
earnings  the  amount  of  $6,579,792,844,  not  estimating  expendi- 
tures and  receipts  in  navigation  of  all  kinds  nor  manufacturing 
in  places  other  than  in  cities  of  over  20,000  inhabitants. 
486 


21 

We  have  for  internal  commerce  $135,000,000,000,  not  counting 
profits  on  resales  nor  estimating  the  immense  traffic  hereafter  to 
be  mentioned. 

We  have  for  the  revenues  of  United  States,  States,  and  coun- 
ties, not  estimating  city  revenues,  $1,405,049,004:  payments  on 
mortgage  debts,  not  estimating  individual  debts  not  secured  by 
mortgage,  $1,*>;!!),479,524;  debts  due  by  banks  to  depositors,  $4.- 
900,000,000;  del)ts  due  to  banks  by  borrowers,  $4,300,000,006; 
making  a  grand  aggregate  of  $153,824,272,505,  or  about  $370,  of 
needs  for  money,  to  one  dollnr  in  gold,  in  circulation,  and  about 
$100  to  every  dollar  of  all  kinds  in  the  United  States.  To  this  is 
to  be  added  for  traffic  and  business  unenumerated  a  sum  many 
times  larger. 

AMOUNT   OF  MONEY  ABROAD  ALSO  rNStrFFICIENT. 

We  have  seen  how  utterly  insufficient  is  the  money  in  the 
United  States  for  the  needs  of  the  people.  I  now  show  that  the 
world's  needs — excluding  the  silver-using  countries— are  equally 
unsatisfied.. 

Taking  the  railroad  traffic  of  Europe— omitting  Roumania, 
Turkey,  Greece,  Belgium,  Portugal,  and  Spain,  for  which  I 
have  no  statistics — and  the  internal  traffic  of  the  whole  of  Eu- 
rope, estimated  on  the  basis  of  twice  that  of  the  United  States, 
though  the  population  is  five  and  a  half  times  greater,  and  the 
expenses  in  manufacturing  and  mining  and  agriculture  at  the 
same  rate,  and  counting  the  taxation  as  actually  returned,  with 
estimate's  only  as  to  the  local  taxes,  except  as  to  taxation  in 
Roumania,  Turkey,  Bulgaria,  Greece,  Portugal,  Spain,  Belgium, 
Holland,  and  Switzerland,  which  is  estimated,  we  have  three 
hundred  and  ten  billions  for  Europe's  annual  needs  for  money. 
But  from  this  is  excluded  what  was  included  in  the  computa- 
tion for  the  United  States— all  local  and  municipal  debts,  all 
railroad  debts,  and  all  private  debts. 

Adding  the  above  sum  to  the  demand  for  money  in  the  United 
States  and  we  have  four  hundred  and  fifty-nine  billions  as  the 
annual  needs  of  Europe  and  the  United  States  for  money,  leav- 
ing out  the  exceptions  before  noticed,  and  the  unspecified  busi- 
ness hereafter  to  be  alluded  to,  and  also  the  whole  foreign  com- 
merce of  the  world,  over  twenty-five  billions,  and  the  interest 
on  the  public  debts  of  the  world  seven  hundred  and  fifty  mil- 
lions. 

The  above  specifications  shows  $130  of  needs  to$l  in  gold,  giv- 
ing Europe  and  the  United  States  all  the  gold  in  the  world,  and 
yet  of  the  three  and  one-half  billions  of  that  gold  three  hundred 
and  seven-six  millions  are  in  other  countries. 

In  these  calculations  I  have  made  no  estimate  for  cost  of  min- 
ing the  precious  metals.  Of  these,  two  hundred  and  twelve  mil- 
lions were  mined  in  1892,  and  counting  all  losses  in  unprofitable 
mining,  I  believe  it  is  understood  that  each  dollar  mined  costa 
dollar  in  expenses. 

Sir,  in  making  these  estimates  I  have  designedly  been  ex- 
tremely conservative.  My  object  has  been  to  exhibit  amounts 
certainly  needed  and  at  the  same  time  to  call  attention  to  the 
general  subject  of  the  world's  needs  for  money,  with  such  speci- 
fications as  would  t  Mid  to  aid  the  thoughtful  mind  to  grasp  these 
great  needs  for  itself,  and  to  furnish  suggestions  for  data  (rather 
than  to  give  complete  data)  by  which  some  idea  might  be  formed 

48S 


22 

of  the  great  inadequacy  of  the  money  of  the  world  to  do  the 
needed  work. 

But,  sir,  in  this  tabuhition  we  have  omitted,  as  before  alluded 
to,  the  immense  transactions  I'oquiriug  the  use  of  money,  based 
on  all  handicraft  manufactures,  and  all  m  inufactures  elsewhere 
than  in  cities  of  20,000  inhabitants  and  over;  on  all  sales  of 
lands,  the  lending-  in  the  first  instance  of  money  by  others  than 
banks,  on  other  securities  than  mortgages;  all  transactions  in  com- 
modities not  transported  by  railroads  and  water  craft;  and  build- 
ing houses,  barges,  ships,  steamboats,  and  repairing  the  same; 
expenses  in  the  immense  slaughter  and  packinghouses;  compen- 
sation to  di-ay  men,  truckmen,  hackmen,  blacksmiths,  bakers,  sa- 
loon-keepers; for  work  in  distilleries;  compensation  to  attaches 
of  theatrical  companies  and  other  exhibitions;  in  domestic  serv- 
ice; to  hotel-keepers  and  servants,  restaurant-keepers,  lawyers, 
doctors,  preachers,  keepers  of  lodging-houses,  lumbermen,  rents 
of  dwellings  and  other  houses  and  lands;  money  used  in  travel- 
ing other  than  for  railroad  fares,  including  money  used  in  navi- 
gating all  water  craft,  ships,  barges,  canal  boats,  and  in  street 
cars,  omnibuses,  hack  and  carriage  fares;  to  pay  sewing-women; 
money  spent  daily  for  newspapers  and  the  wages  and  other 
expenses  in  publishing  them,  and  of  books  and  magazines;  spec- 
ulations in  stocks,  in  futures,  and  speculation  by  real  purchase 
and  sale  of  commodities;  and  the  expenses  of  running  the  large 
number  of  colleges  and  universities  and  high  schools  not  pro- 
vided for  by  taxation. 

To  these  there  are  to  be  added  many  other  kinds  of  daily  ex- 
penditures requiring  money. 

ONLY  ONE  DOLLAR  IN  GOLD  TO  EVERY  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIFtY  DOtiLABS 
NEEDED  IN  COMMERCE. 

And  yet,  sir,  to  do  all  this  work,  to  carry  on  this  specified  com- 
merce and  business  of  Europe  and  the  United  States,  we  have 
but  three  and  a  half  billions  of  gold— one  dollar  in  gold  to  about 
one  hundred  and  fifty  in  traffic  and  commerce,  without  estimat- 
ing for  the  unspecified  business,  which  I  have  no  doubt  amounts 
to  ten  times  as  much  more. 

That  the  world  also  uses  about  the  same  amount  of  legal-ten- 
der silver,  say  three  and  one-half  billions,  does  not  help  tlie  cause 
of  the  mouomctallist.  For  by  refusing  to  coin  silver  as  we  do 
gold,  in  unlimited  quantities  whenever  the  bullion  is  presented, 
we  have  reduced  the  gold  price  of  silver  at  the  ratio  of  10  to  1, 
the  largest  in  any  coinage  in  the  world,  to  the  bullion  value  of 
60  cents  in  the  dollar. 

This  large  amountmust,  therefore,  be  kept  atpar  with  gold  by 
making  it  redeemable  in  gold  like  paper  money ,  and  thus,  as  I  have 
before  shown,  increasing  the  value  of  gold  by  requiring  it  to 
perform  this  nesv  duty.  As  it  is  claimed  that  the  trouble  now 
aflQicting  us  is  the  fear  that  this  would  not  be  done  in  the  United 
States,  i  might  rest  this  part  of  the  case  by  transferring  this 
three  and  one-half  billions  of  silver  to  the  commodity  column, 
as  before  ascertained,  for  which  gold  must  furnish  the  exchange. 

But  if  we  allow  it  to  stand  as  money,  then,  sir,  we  have  seven 
billions  of  metallic  money  to  do  the  whole  world's  commerce  of 
about  four  hundred  and  seventy  billions,  with  the  unenumerated 
billions  included  in  the  business  I  have  alluded  to,  for  which  vre 
have  no  statistics. 
486 


23 

Will  that  do?  It  seoins  to  bo  conceded  it  -will  not  do.  We 
hear  from  all  sides  nearly  that  v;e  must  have  an  intcvnational 
monetary  conference  to  set  silver  up  again  as  a  money  metal. 
That  would  be  folly  if  we  had  money  enough  without  it.  That 
is  unattainable.  England,  the  gi^eat  creditor  of  the  world, 
stands  in  the  way. 

BHALL  WE  ACT  FOR  OUKSELVES  OR  WAIT  FOB  CONSENT  OF  BDROPE?    WHAT 
JEFFERSON  SAID. 

Mr.  President,  I  desire  to  submit  this  question  to  the  serious 
consideration  of  the  American  people.  With  us  all  conceding 
that  there  ought  to  be  remonetization  of  silver,  that  we  need 
silver,  that  it  is  necessary  to  cari'y  on  the  world's  work  properly, 
that  there  is  a  deficiency  of  currency,  ai'o  we  to  stop  and  say  we 
will  not  supply  this  deficiency,  as  was  suggested  by  the  Senator 
from  Texas  [Mr.  Mills]  yesterday,  without  the  consent  of  Eu- 
rope? Is  it  a  fact  that  in  the  most  important  of  all  governmental 
action  we  dare  not  take  a  single  step  to  supply  an  acknowledged 
want  of  the  American  people  without  consulting  Europe?  On 
that  subject  I  desire  to  read,  for  the  benefit  of  some  Senators 
who  profess  to  be  JefEersonian  Democrats,  what  Mr.  Jefferson 
said  not  quite  a  century  ago.  I  read  from  a  letter  dated  May 
13,  1797,  by  Mr.  Jefferson  to  Elbridge  Gerry.  Said  Mr.  Jeffer- 
son: 

It  has  been  my  constant  object  through  my  public  life;  and  with  respect 
to  the  English  and  French  particularly,  I  have  too  often  expressed  to  the 
former  my  wishes,  and  made  to  them  propositions  verbally  and  in  writing, 
officially  and  privately,  to  official  and  pi'ivate  characters,  for  them  to  doubt 
my  views,  if  they  would  be  content  with  equality. 

They  will  not  have  equality.  They  wish  to  domineer  the 
American  Republic  as  to  the  most  important  question  which 
can  be  submitted  to  a  people. 

Of  this,  they  are  in  possession  of  several  written  and  formal  proofs  in  my 
own  handwriting.  But  they  have  wished  a  monopoly  of  commerce  and  in- 
fluence with  us;  and  they  have,  in  fact,  obtained  it. 

I  am  afraid  that  is  the  fact  now. 

When  we  take  notice  that  theirs  is  the  workshop  to  which  we  go  for  all 
we  want;  that  with  them  center  either  immediately  or  ultini:Uely  all  tlie 
labors  of  our  hands  and  lands;  that  to  them  belongs  either  openly  or  secretly 
the  great  mass  of  our  navigation;— 

I  believe  that  is  so  now — 
that  they  are  advancing  fast  to  a  monopoly  of  our  banks  and  public  funds— 

The  great  cry  is  now  that  if  we  pass  this  bill  the  immense 

number  of  bonds  and  public  securities  owned  in  Europe  will  be 

turned  back  upon  us — 

and  thereby- 
Said  Mr.  Jefferson — 

placing  our  public  finances  under  their  control. 

My  God!  is  not  that  the  situation  to-day  when  American  Sena- 
tors get  up  and  gravely  tell  the  American  Senate  that  silver  ought 
to  be  remonetized  and  they  dare  not  do  it  except  by  the  consent 
of  Europe? 

That  they  have  in  their  alliance  the  most  influential  characters  in  and  out 
of  office;  when  thev  have  shown  that  by  all  these  bearings  on  the  different 
branches  of  the  Government,  that  they  can  force  it  to  proceed  in  whatever 
direction  tUey  dictate,  and  bend  the  interests  of  this  country  entirely  to  the 
will  of  another— 
486 


24 

Is  not  that  what  is  gravely  proposed  to  be  done  with  reference 
to  the  remonetization  of  silver? 
When  all  this— 
Continues  Mr.  Jefferson — 

I  say,  is  attended  to,  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  say  we  stand  on  Independent 
ground,  impossible  for  a  free  mind  not  to  see  and  to  groan  under  the  bond- 
age in  which  it  is  bound.  If  anything  after  this  could  excite  surprise  It  would 
be  that  they  have  been  able  so  far  lo  throw  dust  in  the  eyes  of  our  own  citi- 
zens as  to  flx  on  those  who  wish  merely  to  recover  self-government  the 
charge  of  subserving  one  foreign  influence  because  they  resist  submission 
lo  another. 

I  fear  this  is  true  now — 

But  they  possess  our  printing  presses,  a  powerful  engine  In  their  govern- 
ment of  us. 

Further,  Mr.  Jefferson  says: 

But  I  hope  we  may  still  keep  clear  of  them,  notwithstanding  our  present 
thraldom,  and  that  time  may  be  given  us  to  reflect  on  the  .  wful  crisis  we 
have  passed  thi-ough,  and  to  find  some  means  of  shielding  ourselves  in  future 
from  foreign  influence. 

What  sort  of  foreig-n  influence? 

Foreign  influence  political,  commercial,  or  in  whatever  form  it  may  be  at- 
tempted. 

And  then  comes  the  expression  of  a  wish  which,  when  I  hear 
it  stated  that  we  dare  not  move  in  this  matter  of  supreme  im- 
port to  the  American  people  without  the  consent  of  Europe,  I 
confess  I  feel  exactly  as  Mr.  Jefferson  did.    Said  he: 

I  can  scarcely  withhold  myself  from  joining  in  the  wish  of  Silas  Deane, 
that  there  were  an  ocean  of  tire  between  us  and  the  Old  World. 

FALLING  PRICES    AND  GENERAL    DISTRESS    RESULTS  OF  SILVER  DEMONETI- 
ZATION. 

Mr.  President,  the  world's  business  is  carried  on  in  a  way, 
under  the  present  system  of  demonetization,  but  is  it  well  car- 
ried on? 

Let  the  low  and  still  falling  prices  of  the  great  commodities  of 
the  world  answer.  Let  the  distress  now  prevailing  everywhere 
answer. 

The  insufficiency  of  the  present  metallic  coinage  not  only 
ruins  the  people  by  low  prices,  butitfurnishestheopportunity  for 
the  banks  and  their  allies  to  produce  panic  and  distress,  from  con- 
traction and  distrust,  by  which  the  people  are  still  further  robbed 
and  the  moneyed  classes  grow  rich. 

Mr.  Picsident,  hivl  ■  shown  the  insufficiency  of  the  money 
of  the  world  to  do  the  work  of  the  world,  I  propose  to  call  the 
attention  of  the  Senate  to  the  various  devices  and  contrivances 
which  have  been  invented  by  the  banks  to  supply  the  wants  of 
the  world  for  money. 

With  a  traffic  requiring  many  hundred  dollars  to  one  in  ex- 
istence of  gold,  with  the  superadded  dependent  silver,  there 
has  come  a  necessity  for  such  credit  devices  as  are  now  claimed 
to  be  the  substitutes  for  money,  and  which  are  alleged  to  be  bet- 
ter than  an  increase  of  money  itself. 

These  substitutes  are  all  based  on  what  is  called  confidence.  In 
this  way  the  ingenious  devices  of  men  are  claimed  to  be  and  are, 
as  longas  a  credulous  public  will  give  faith  to  them,  substitutes 
lor  money. 

4S6 


25 

COMMERCE  DRIVEN  TO  SUB.STI'njTES   FOR  METALIvIC  MONEY. 

But  ure  these  substitutes  reliable  when  c  .ri'icd  to  the  extont 
they  are  no/v.' 

They  may  do  when  there  are  uo  clouJs  in  the  l.nancial  skies, 
when  credit  is  in  J  uU  vig'or,  when  trust  and  faith  aro  abound- 
ing-, but  when  there  comes  the  smallest  disturbnnce  anywhere 
in  the  commercial  world  I'lom  any  cause,  from  folly  in  over- 
tradinjr.or  from  that  cool  and  calculating  malignity  and  hunger 
for  gold  so  often  m mifestod  by  those  who  conti'ol  the  li nances 
of  the  world,  when  p  mics  are  produced,  and  the  business  of  the 
world  wrecked  in  order  that  the  fortunes  of  those  who  cause 
these  disasters  to  mankind  may  be  increased — I  say  when  these 
troubles  come,  these  substitutes  are  of  no  value. 

We  have  heard  something  of  the  trouble  coming  from  the 
Barings'  failure  in  18!J0,  the  failure  of  one  banking  house  caused 
by  overspeculation  in  one  little  country  containing  only  3,oOO,OCM3 
inhabit  ints,  and  with  a  foreign  trade  of  only  $24.'i,00U,000.  So 
these  devices  are  of  such  a  character  that  the  smallest  disturb- 
ance in  one  ol'  the  most  insignificant  countries  in  the  world  com- 
mercially brings  disaster  and  panic  over  the  civilized  world. 

Let  us  look  for  a  moment  at  the  substitutes  or  alleged  economies 
In  the  use  of  money  so  far  as  developed  in  our  own  country. 

Gi^eat  stress  is  laid  on  the  small  portion  of  money  used  in  the 
clearing  housos.  whereby  transactions  to  the  amount  of  over 
sixty-one  billfons  in  the  year  1892  were  settled  with  only  about 
5  per  cent  in  money. 

But,  sir,  there  is  an  obvious  reflection  to  be  made  with  refer- 
ence to  thos  !  cle.iiings.  It  is  that  they  rehite  only  to  large 
transactions,  which  go  through  banks  associated  in  clearing 
houses,  having  no  reference  to  the  daily  use  of  money  in  small 
transactions,  in  paying  wages  of  all  kinds,  in  retail  business,  and, 
in  fact,  all  the  millions  of  ordinary  daily  traffic  of  the  67,000,000  of 
people  of  the  United  St  ites.  Another  is  that  there  are  more 
than  liftcen  States  and  Territories  in  which  there  are  no  clear- 
ing houses,  whilst  there  are  two  States  which  have  five  each 
and  two  which  have  four  each.  This  economy  is  used  in  a  few 
localities  only.  It  aids  the  banks  associated  in  them  and  no  one 
else. 

THE  BANKS  HOARD  MONEY  NOT  THEIR  OWN  IN  A  PANIC. 

But  the  principal  thing  on  which  it  is  relied  to  make  a  small 
and  insufficient  currency  do  the  work  of  a  very  large  circula- 
tion arises  from  the  habit  of  dcj)0.iiting  money  in  banks,  and 
the  keeping  by  the  banks  of  that  money  in  circulation  by  con- 
tinually lending  to  others  a  1-irge  portion  of  the  amount  depos- 
ited for  safe-keeping.  And,  sir,  when  it  shall  be  noted  as  I  shall 
develop  it  that  this  is  a  remarkable  assistance  in  making  a  little 
money  go  a  great  way  by  lieeping  that  liitle  in  constant  use,  it 
must  not  at  the  same  time  b^  forgotten  that  this  constant  circula- 
tion coasos  when  there  is  a  commercial  panic.  It  is  worthless  to 
aid  us  in  a  financi  1;  torm.  It  increases  its  fury  by  refusing  to  the 
owners  of  the  deposiled  money  the  power  to  use  it.  Money, 
then,  is  locked  up  in  the  banks.  It  is  in  all  respects,  so  far  as 
beneficial  use  is  concerned,  hoarded  except  that  it  is  not  hoarded 
by  the  owners,  but  by  tho  banks,  who  refuse  to  let  the  owners 
have  it.  Then  there  are  also  checks  and  bills  of  exchange  which 
in  good  times  perform  useful  olhces.    But  they,  like  deposits 


26 


in  the  banks,  are  worthless  in  a  financial  crisis,  except  so  far  as 
they  are  drawn  on  money  r.ctually  held  for  their  payment  by  a 
trustee,  who  will  not  refuse  to  honor  them. 

But,  sir,  I  would  fail  to  do  justice  to  the  genius  of  the  great 
monometallist capitalists  of  the  world,  the  banks  and  their  allies, 
if  I  fail  to  mention  another  expedient,  another  device,  by  which 
the  world's  money  ismade  1o  support  and  to  carry  on  the  world's 
commerce,  and  by  which  the  commerce  is  made  to  fit  the  cur- 
rency, instead  of  increasing  the  volume  of  the  currency  to  meet 
the  demands  of  commerce.  This  expadient — this  Procustean  de- 
vice—has the  advantage  over  all  others  in  this,  that  it  is  not  a 
fair-weather  device  only,  but  becomes  more  and  more  efficient  as 
the  financial  disasters  shall  increase  in  intensity  and  fury.  By 
this  device  the  prices  of  commodities  fall  as  the  calls  for  money 
become  louder  and  more  exigent. 

SXBEKIHG  PEOOrS  OE"  THE  EFFECT  OF  SILVER  DEMONETIZATION  ON  PRICES- 
ENORMOUS  LOSS. 

To  show  how  this  is  done,  I  read  an  extract  from  the  report  of 
the  gold  and  silver  commission  of  Great  Britain,  and  it  is  very 
significant  and  important.  Commenting  on  the  effects  of  silver 
demonetization,  they  say: 

The  following  figures  from  Miv  Giffen's  reports  to  the  board  of  trade  show 
that  the  declared  \  alue  of  our  [Great  Britain]  foreign  trade  in  the  under- 
mentioned yearsTvas  asfoUows,  the  progressof  the  trade  to  1873  having  been 
for  many  years  almost  imbroken: 

1873 £626,000,000 

1879 554,500,000 

1883... 667,000,000 

1884 023,000,000 

If,  however,  the  trade  of  the  three  latter  years  be  valued  at  the  prices  of 
1873,  it  would  be  represented  by  the  following  figures: 


1885 £584,000,000 

1886 562,500,000 

1887 583,500,000 


1885 £835,000,000 

1886 858,000,000 


1879..., £711,000,000 

1888 861,000,000 

1884 844,000,000 

The  average  for  the  last  four  years  is— 

Declared  value £600,100,000 

Value  at  prices  of  1873 849,500,000 

showing  an  average  falling  off  of  £210, 400, 000.  or  about  29  per  cent. 

Even  a  more  striking  proof  of  the  decline  in  value  of  British  trade  aS  com- 
pared with  volume  is  afforded  by  the  fact  that  while  we  have  seen  the  total 
value  of  that  trade  decline  from  £626,000,000  in  1873  to  £583,641,000  in  1887,  the 
total  tonnage  employed  in  carrying  it  advanced  from  37,934,432  in  1873  to 
56, 170,447  in  1887. 

But,  Mr.  President,  lest  i^  may  be  asserted  that  the  falling 
values  of  commerce  are  local  to  Great  Britain,  I  submit  some 
figures  to  show  that  the  same  ingenious  device  to  make  a  small 
volume  of  money  do  the  great  business  of  the  world  is  in  full 
force  in  the  United  States. 

I  have  already  called  the  attention  of  the  Senate  and  had  in- 
serted in  my  remarks  the  tables  taken  from  the  speech  made  by 
my  colleague  [Mr.  Walthall,].    I  will  put  in  one  or  two  more. 

LOSS  ON  COTTON  FROM  DEMONETIZ.4TION  OF  SILVER. 

The  farm  value— not  the  commercial  value  at  New  Orleans, 
New  York,  and  Liverpool,  but  the  farm  value  of  the  cotton  crop 
oif  1890,  consisting  of  7,313,726  bales,  was  by   an  official  table 
4S9 


27 

$310,000,000,  whilst  tho  farm  value  of  the  crop  of  1892.  consist- 
ing of  over  9,000,000  bales,  vi^as  only  $270.  000,  000. 

A  like  result  will  be  found  when  we  come  to  the  wheat  crop, 
a  constantly  increasing-  production  and  a  constantly  decreasing- 
price. 

The  small  volume  of  money  did  the  business  of  the  world  be- 
cause the  value  of  the  commodities  of  commerce  were  made  to 
shrink  to  the  competency  of  the  money  of  the  world  to  carrying 
it  on. 

I  present  some  figures  on  tho  subject  of  these  devices.  Of 
course  to  intelligent,  observing  men  they  will  not  be  nev/.  but 
possibly  they  may  contain  some  information  to  those  who  are  not 
so  familiar  with  this  kind  of  literature  as  are  the  Senators  upon 
this  floor. 

FIGtrEES  SHOWING  EXTENT  OF  THESB  DEVICES. 

The  total  money  in  circulation  of  all  kinds  in  the  United 
States  in  1891,  as  shown  by  a  statement  of  the  Treasury,  was 
$l,fi01,347,187. 

The  national  banks  had  on  deposit  on  September  30,  1892,  the 
sum  of  $2,002,000,000,  or  more  than  all  the  money  in  circulation 
by  25  per  cent. 

The  State  and  private  banks  investment  and  loan 
companies,  and  savings  banks  had  on  deposit,  in 

the  same  year,  of  ordinary  deposits $1,198,825,545 

Savings  deposits 1,712,769,026 

Total 2,911.594.571 

Add  deposits  of  national  banks 2,002,600^000 

Makes  total  deposits  in  all  banks 4,914,194,511 

or  just  about  three  times  the  whole  amount  of  all  the  money  in 
circulation  in  the  United  States  and  more  than  all  the  gold  cir- 
culation in  the  whole  world. 

These  banks  did  not  keep  this  money  hoarded;  they  lent  it  out 
at  a  good  interest,  whereby  it  produced  great  profit  to  them. 

The  national  banks  had  out  in  loans  in  1892 $2, 153,  498,  829 

The  other  banks  loaned 2,  202, 131,  728 

Total  loans  of  all  banks 4,  362,  630,  557 

or  about  $2.70  loaned  by  the  banks  alone  to  every  dollar  in  cir^ 

culation  in  the  United  States.  What  a  wonderful  contrivance 
of  the  banks,  by  which  they  not  only  use  their  own  capital  profit- 
ably, as  will  be  seen,  but  which  enables  them  to  lend  at  interest 
$2.70  to  every  dollar  in  the  circulation  of  the  United  States. 

This  is  a  very  p,ocd  showing  for  supplying  the  deficiency  of 
the  currency  and  enriching  the  banks.  It  only  has  this  ohe 
trouble,  that  it  is  utterly  impotent  as  a  substitute  for  a  deficient 
currency,  though  omnipotent  for  enriching  the  banks. 

When  the  slightest  financial  storm  shall  arise,  it  would  be  no 
addition  to  the  circulation,  but  a  contraction,  as  the  banks  in 
such  times  refuse  payment  of  their  deposits. 


28 

But  all  these  loans  are  based  on  deposits  and  circulation,  and 
are  payable  on  demand,  as  follows: 

Circulation  and  deposits  of  national  banks $1,  908,  846,  2-;i 

State- bank  deposits,  payable  on  demand 1, 198,  825, 545 

Total 3,107,671,820 

nearly  twice  as  much  as  all  the  currency  of  the  country. 
But  these  banks  do  notownall,or  even  nearly  all,  of  the  money 

of  this  country.     At  the  same  time  that  they  are  subjected  to 

these  enormous  obligations,  payable  on  demand,  they  have  only 

cash  as  follows: 

State    banks,  cash  and  cash  items  (whatever  that 

may  be) --  $197,789,384 

(What  cash  items  may  be  is  unexplained,  but  I  give  them  the 

benefit  of  it  all  as  cash.) 

Cash  held  by  national  banks $332,941,816 

Total  held  by  all  banks .- 530,731,200 

This  shows  demand  obligations — which  may  be  presented  at 
any  time,  and  must  be  met  when  presented — nearly  six  times  as 
much  as  cash  and  cash  items  to  meet  them. 

In  this  calculation  we  leave  out  the  savings  deposits,  which 
practically  are  demand  obligations,  in  case  of  a  panic,  since,  if 
the  banks  holding  them  decline  to  pay  on  demand  and  claim  the 
sixty  or  thirty  days'  notice,  as  the  case  may  be,  it  brings  dis- 
credit and  distrust,  and  but  adds  fuel  to  the  fire.  Adding  these, 
and  we  have  the  result  that  all  the  banks  have  only  one-ninth 
of  the  cash  and  cash  items  needed  to  meet  their  obligations 
payable  on  demand.  This  view  gives  them  credit  for  all  money 
of  whatever  kind  which  they  possess. 

GOLD  AN  INADEQUATE  BASIS  FOB  BUSINESS. 

But  if  we  are  to  consider  that  gold  alone  is  to  be  the  money  of 
ultimate  redemption,  how  utterly  insignificant  is  the  amount  now 
owned  by  the  banks  to  meet  their  obligations.  The  total  gold 
and  gold  certificates  held  by  all  the  banks  in  the  United  States 
on  July  12,  1892,  was  only  a  small  fraction  over  $191,000,000,  and 
all  the  gold  in  circulation  in  the  United  States  was  only  $408,- 
568,824.    (See  page  OG,  Coinage  Laws.) 

In  this  situation,  is  it  a  matter  for  wonder  that  we  have  a  finan- 
cial crisis  now;  or.  rather,  is  it  not  a  wonder  that  we  are  not  in 
that  condition  all  the  time?  Whilst  everybody  has  confidence 
and  faith  matters  go  along,  not  indeed  smoothly,  yet  without 
violent  convulsions  and  without  great  catastrophies. 

Then  we  have  that  evenness  in  business,  that  absence  from 
disturbance  which  comes  as  often  from  that  dulness  and  stag- 
nation which  are  sure  monitors  of  approaching  death,  as  from  a 
blind  faith  that  the  banks  will  meet  their  obligations.  Governor 
Stannard,  the  president  of  the  business  men's  convention  which 
met  in  this  city  a  few  days  ago,  stated  in  his  speech  on  taking  the 
chair  that  92  per  cent  of  the  business  of  the  country  was  done 
on  confidence,  and  that  about  60  per  cent  of  this  confidence  had 
now  vanished.  In  this  situation  it  is  in  the  power  of  the  banks 
and  the  great  capitalists  to  impair  this  confidence  and  thus  pro- 
duce the  panic  now  prevailing. 

And  they  did  it. 
486 


29 

Would  it  not  be  better,  Mr.  President,  if  for  this  vanishingf 
confidence  we  had  an  addition  of  re  '  1  suhstMncc — metillic  money':' 

But,  Mr.  President,  notwithst 'nding  the  conc-ded  insulli- 
ciency  of  real  money,  ;'nd  the  necessary  substitutir.n  for  money, 
of  these  devices,  all  of  which  are  based  on  confidence,  on  the 
faith  of  the  people  in  that  airy  nothing — a  mere  emotion  of  the 
mind  which  may  vanish  in  an  instant,  which  can  be  made  to 
vanish  by  capitalists— wo  are  urged  to  decrease  real  money  in 
order  that  these  substitutes  may  usurp  its  place. 

A  writer,  the  editor  of  TJradstreet's  in  the  Forum  for  Septem- 
ber, 1893,  states  we  have  had  nine  panics  in  this  century,  and, 
with  one  or  two  exceptions,  they  come  in  periods  of  about  nine 
or  ten  years  apart.  "These  periods,''  says  this  same  write)-, 
"consist  of  from  three  to  five  years  of  commercial  activity,  suc- 
ceeded by  several  years  of  depression."'  He  names  also  five 
other  intermediate  periods  in  which  there  were  distinct  business 
disturbances,  but  less  formidable  than  the  panics.  Of  these  five 
he  names  one  as  the  "  echo  of  the  Baring  crash,"  in  ISiiO.  So 
that  under  the  present  system  we  are  nearly  all  the  time  either 
in  a  financial  crisis  or  in  the  depression  occasioned  by  one,  or 
just  on  the  eve  of  having  one  to  burst  on  us  with  all  its  terrible 
fury. 

CONDITION  OF  THE  BANKS  FAVOR  PANICS. 

It  was  said  a  few  days  ago  in  this  body  by  the  very  able  and 
careful  Senator  from  Missouri  [Mr.  Cockrell],  who  had  fully 
investigated  the  matter,  that  the  condition  of  the  banks  in  this 
counti-y  wei'e  better  than  they  were  in  Europe.  This  being  so, 
the  conditions  for  world-wide  panics  exist  everywhere  as  they  do 
here. 

And  yet,  sir,  we  are  told  that  the  present  system  of  silver  de- 
monetization and  the  single  gold  standard  is  the  only  basis  of 
financial  safety  and  business  prosperity.  It  is  impossible,  sir,  to 
reconcile  this  position  with  verity  in  the  operations  of  the  human 
intellect.  The  hallucination  can  be  accounted  for  only  on  the 
ground  that  business  men  refuse  to  exercise  their  reason  and 
blindly  repose  in  confidence  on  the  interested  assertion  of  those 
who,  having  the  power  through  a  deficiency  in  the  currency  to 
control  at  their  will  the  business  of  the  world,  are  unwilling  to 
surrender  their  destructive  preeminenc3. 

But,  Mr.  President,  having  shown  that  we  are  ahvaysin  a  con- 
dition to  have  a  panic  whenever  tiny  considerable  part  of  the 
great  capitalists  of  the  world  want  one,  and  that  according  to 
this  writer  in  the  Forum  wo  are  always  either  in  a  panic  or  in 
the  depression  occasioned  by  one,  or  just  about  to  have  a  panic 
burst  upon  us.  I  want  to  notice  some  of  the  palliatives  which  the 
banks  have  invented  for  the  purpose  not  of  saving  the  commu- 
nity from  the  terrible  ett'ects  of  these  financial  storms,  but  to 
shelter  their  guilty  heads  from  the  fury  which  they  have  evoked. 

PALLIATIVES  FOR  PANICS. 

But,  Mr.  President,  the  great  financial  genuises  who  create 
these  panics,  are  not  without  the  power  to  contrive  shelter  and 
protection  for  themselves  against  the  peltings  of  the  pitiless 
storm. 

They  have  invented  devices  by  which  the  hardships  of  panics, 
resulting  to  them  from  an  insufficient  currency,  may  be,  if  not 
wholly  obviated,  at  least  palliated. 

486 


30 

But  it  will  be  seen  that  they  are  mainly  if  not  exclusively  for 
the  banks.  They  do  not  extend  to  the  great  mass  of  the  people, 
who  remain  the  impitied  victims  of  these  financial  necromancers, 
who  have  evoked  the  angry  spirits  of  disorder  and  distrust.  The 
banks  are  permitted  to  refuse  payment  of  their  deposits— not 
by  law,  but  by  the  tolei'ance  of  the  Government,  after  having 
received  the  money  of  the  people  on  a  contract  to  return  it  on 
demand — if  the  payment  should  be  impracticable  or  inconven- 
ient. It  is  nearly  always  one  or  the  other,  owing  to  their  hav- 
ing loaned  their  deposits,  to  an  amount  six  times  greater  than 
the  money  on  hand  to  pay  them. 

DISHONEST  PHACTICES  OF  THE  BANKS. 

But  even  then,  such  is  the  infatuation  produced  by  wealth, 
these  embezzlers  of  the  funds  of  others  are  claimed  to  be  bene- 
factors of  the  public,  seeking  only  from  patriotic  and  philan- 
thropic motives  to  advance  the  public  weil  by  their  generous 
action  in  certifying  their  depositors'  checks.  If  you,  sir,  or  I, 
had  done  thesp  things,  so  meritorious  in  the  banks,  we  would 
have  been  sent  to  the  penitentiary.  There  is  all  the  difference 
in  the  world  between  the  defaults  of  corporations  and  the  short- 
comings of  private  individuals.  What  is  a  crime  in  one  is  a 
merit  in  the  other.  The  banks  put  off  their  depositors  by  cer- 
tifying their  checks  as  "good,-' which  means  "good"'  when  con- 
venient for  the  banks  to  pay.  The  merchant,  or  other  depos- 
itor, having  debts  falling  due  have  no  such  privilege  of  certify- 
ing checks. 

Being  unable  to  get  from  the  banks  the  money  they  have  de- 
posited, ihey  must  go  to  protest,  and  in  many  instances  into  bank- 
ruptcy. They  have  no  palliatives;  they  can  not  certify  checks 
as  "good."  Then  again  the  banks,  having  refused  payment  of 
the  money  on  deposit  with  them,  keeping,  hoarding  it  for  such 
use  and  at  such  times  as  they,  shall  adjudge  best  for  their  own 
interests,  have  another  contrivance,  also  unauthorized  by  law. 
They  create  a  curi'ency  for  the  occasion,  and  this  not  only  with- 
out authority  of  law,  but  in  express  violation  not  only  of  the  spirit 
of  the  law,  but  of  its  letter.  The  banks,  combined  in  a  clearing- 
house association,  which  is  not  a  Federal  but  a  State  association, 
issue  a  currency  called  clearing-house  certificates,  not  based  oh 
United  States  bonds,  but  on  such  collaterals  as  the  "loaning 
committee  "  of  the  clearing  house  shall  adjudge  sufficient,  and  on 
the  guaranty  of  the  associated  banks. 

BANKS  PKOVIDE  CURRENCY  FOR  THEMSELVES;  BUT  NOT  FOB  THE  PEOPLE. 

It  is  said  that  these  certificates  ax'o  not  currency.  I  present 
one: 

Loan  committee  of  the  New  York  Clearing  House  Association  No.  31. 
"Five  thousand  dollars"  on  the  right-hand  corner. 

This  certifies  that  the has  deposited  with  this  committee  security  In 

accordance  with  the  proceedings  of  the  meeting  of  the  association  held  No- 
vember U,  1890,  on  which  this  certificate  is  issued. 

This  certificate  will  be  received  in  payment  of  balances  at  the  clearing 
house  for  the  sum  of  $5,000  fi-om  any  member  of  the  clearing  house  associa- 
tion. 

Then  there  is  a  memorandum  down  in  the  left-hand  corner 
which  reads  as  follows: 

On  the  surrender  of  this  certificate  by  the  depositing  in  the  bank  above 
named  the  committee  will  indorse  the  amount  as  a  payment  on  the  obliga- 
tion of  said  bank  held  by  them  and  surrender  a  proportionate  share  of  uie 
collateral  securities  held  therefor. 
486 


31 

Then  hero  (exhibiting  papers)  is  all  the  various  mafhinery  by 
which  a  bank  can  got  one  of  these  clearino'-houso  certificates. 
Here  is  the  obligation  of  the  bori'owing  bank.  It  will  be  noticed 
that  the  bank  borrowing  this  certificate  figrees  to  pay  "  inter- 
est thereon  at  the  rate  of per  cent  i)er  annum  to  the  said 

association."  Then  it  is  signed  and  sealed  by  the  president  and 
cashier. 

Now,  that  certiflcato  passes  as  legal-tender  currency  from 
bank  to  bank.  It  is  a  kind  of  elite  currency,  which  is  never 
issued  in  sums  of  less  than  $5,000,  and  is  not  brought  down  to 
the  wants  and  necessities  and  capacities  of  the  average  American 
citizen. 

They  are  not  allowed  to  be  circulated  among  others  than 
banks.  But  that  makes  them  not  a  currency  at  all,  but  cur- 
rency for  the  banks  only.  The  people  are  hungry  for  more  cur- 
rency; their  business  is  stopped;  their  debts  are  unpaid;  distress 
prevails  everywhere,  yet  they  are  not  to  have  a  share  of  this 
currency  created  for  the  especial  use  of  the  banks.  Nor,  sir, 
will  the  banks,  so  far  as  they  can  prevent  it,  and  that  is  the  worst 
thing-  about  it,  allow  Congress  to  authorize  the  issue  of  addi- 
tional currency  for  our  distressed  people.  The  banks  keep  the 
money  of  the  people  deposited  with  them,  and  at  the  same  time 
issue  without  authority  of  law  a  special  and  unauthorized  cur- 
rency for  their  own  use,  and  which  by  its  terms  can  not  circu- 
late among  the  people.  Does  it  not  seem  that  this  is  not  a  gov- 
ernment of  laws,  which  our  fathers  vainly  strove  to  establish,  but 
a  government  of  banks?  And  yet  we  are  told  that  the  trouble 
is  not  a  deficiency  of  the  currency,  but  a  want  of  confidence, 
60  percent  of  which  confidence  has  vanished, as  Governor  Stan- 
nard  stated  in  his  inaugural  speech  to  the  great  convention  of 
business  men  which  met  at  this  capital  a  few  days  ago. 

DEFICIENT  CURRENCY  CAUSE  OF  THE  TROUBLE. 

But  a  want  of  confidence  in  whom?  Is  it  in  the  banks,  which 
refuse  to  pay  their  deposits  and  are  unable  to  pay  them?  Oh, 
no.  Their  refusal  to  pay  their  debts  is,  under  the  contention 
of  the  banks  and  their  allies  and  apologists,  no  ground  for  aAvant 
of  confidence  in  them,  but  of  praise  and  gratitude.  According 
to  them  it  is  the  Sherman  law  which  prevents  the  people 
from  giving  their  unreserved  confidence  to  the  suspended 
banks. 

Though  the  batiks  refuse  to  pay  their  debts  for  an  alleged  want 
of  funds,  which  they  ought  to  have  on  hand,  we  are  asked  to 
believe  that  the  Slierman  law,  which  largely  increases  the  cur- 
rency, is  the  cause  of  all  trouble.  The  depositors  in  the  banks 
would  be  glad  to  get  the  Treasury  notes  issued  under  the  Sher- 
man law  and  put  them  away,  so  that  they  might  have  a  privi- 
lege, denied  by  the  banks,  of  using  their  own  money  as  they 
need  it. 

Mr.  President,  may  I  not  now  confidently  assert  that  th6  great 
trouble  is  a  deficient  currency? 

When  banks  entirely  solvent  can  not  pay  their  demand  obliga- 
tions because  they  exceed  by  300  per  cent  all  the  money  in  the 
country  and  by  more  than  1.000  percent  all  the  money  of  all 
kinds  which  they  hold:  v/hen  this  is  their  I'egular,  normal  con- 
dition, into  which  they  voluntarily  place  themselves  in  order  to 
satisfy  their  greed  for  gain;  when  all  the  devices  and  confeil- 


32 

vances  used  for  supplying  this  deficiency  prove  utterly  unavail- 
ing, and  when  there  is  disaster  throughout  the  land — factories 
closed,  laborers  without  employment,  crops  unmoved,  harsh  bar- 
gains driven  by  the  usurer.  ])roperty  sold  at  enormous  discounts 
below  its  value,  and  all  this  for  the  want  of  mon<'y— isitthe  true 
remedy  to  further  tliminisli  the  supply  of  money? 

And'yet,  sir,  this  further  depletion,  this  diminution  of  money, 
is  exactly  wh;ii  is  proposed. 

No,  sir,  I  w,is  too  fast;  with  convenient  inconsistency  there  is 
to  be  an  addition,  but  of  what  and  to  whom?  Of  the  national- 
bank  circulation  and  to  be  issued  to  the  banks  and  to  them  alone. 
Thus,  as  if  to  show  oar  contcm])t  for  the  rights  of  the  people, 
when  distress  comes  we  diminish  circulation  to  them  and  in- 
crease it  to  the  banks  who  oppress  them. 

This  will  but  increase  their  power,  now  already  too  great. 
They  can  lend  it  at  a  hi«h  interest  or  they  can  hold  it  as  they 
are  now  holding  the  people's  money  on  deposit  with  them.  But, 
sir,  we  must  stand  all  this  in  order  that  silver  money  shall  be 
suppressed. 

THE  REAL  CONTEST,  SHALL  MONET  BE  COINED  FOR  THE  PEOPLE  OR  PAPER 
MONEY  ISS0ED  TO  THE  BANKS? 

This,  sir,  is  the  real  contest.  It  is  the  question  of  the  day. 
As  we  have  hud  so  much  talk  in  the  Senate  by  gentlemen  who 
are  pressing  the  consideration  of  the  pending  bill  that  they  mean 
after  awhile,  somehow  or  other,  at  a  date  unspecified,  to  give  us 
money.  I  wish  to  show  to  the  Senate  what  the  real  promoters  of 
this  scheme  mean.  I  do  not  mean  to  charge  any  Senator  with 
not  being  candid  in  his  statement.  1  have  no  doubt  that  those 
who  say  they  are  going  to  give  us  free  coinage  or  more  coinag  :■ 
at  some  indefinite  and  unspecified  period  mean  to  do  so,  but  that 
is  not  the  object  of  this  movement.  The  New  York  merchants 
honored  me  by  sending  me  a  circular,  which  I  understand  was 
circulated  all  through  the  State  of  Mississippi  and  other  States 
which  happen  to  have  Senators  here  who  do  not  believe  in  the 
divinity  of  national  banks. 

This 'is  rather  a  formidable  paper.  The  signatures,  amounting 
to  about  a  hundred,  are  not  put  clearly  in  plain  type;  they  are  fac- 
simile autographs,  so  as  to  appear  as  if  each  had  been  signed  by 
the  important  individual  or  firm  whose  signature  is  attached. 
Now  what  do  they  say?    I  will  not  read  it  ail: 

We  believe  it  to  be  necessary  for  the  best  interests  of  this  country  that  the 
silver-purchasing  clause  of  the  Sherman  act  be  promptly  repealed— 

They  want  it  promptly  repealed.  They  are  not  willing  to  give 
the  Senate  of  the  United  States  the  opportunity  of  debate  and 
discussion  and  consideration  to  see  whether  this  is  the  best  thing 
to  do.  They  want  it  promptly  repealed,  when  up  to  this  time, 
so  far  as  I  have  heard,  not  one  single  man  on  this  floor  who  ad- 
vocates repeal  has  said  that  the  act  of  1890  is  the  fruitful  mother 
of  our  woes — 

MACHINB  PRESSURE  ON    SILVER   SENATORS. 

and  feel  that  every  day's  delay  in  arriving  at  this  result  delays  the  revival 
of  confidence  and  the  return  of  trade  to  its  normal  volume.  We  believe  also 
that  to  insure  the  necessary  legislation,  pressure— 

Oh,  pressure!    Pressure! — 

from  their  sound-money  constituents  must  be  brought  to  bear  upon  many 
Seaators  and  Representatives. 
486 


33 

Oh,  sound  money!  Is  this  cloiiving-house  certificate  sound 
money"?  Is  that  the  pressure  for  sound  money  which  they  de- 
sire to  be  brought  to  bear  upon  the  Senators  of  the  United  St.ites, 
or  is  it  the  sound  money  co  .sisting-of  ceiti'ied  checks  of  default- 
ing- banks  who,  having-  received  the  peop  e's  money  and  having 
raised  a  storm  which  they  can  sufcly  ride  by  defyin,-,"-  the  people, 
they  give  to  the  p  jople  in  exchange  for  their  money?  Now,  let 
us  go  on  with  this  cii'cular: 

The  advocates— 

Now,  notice.     The  advocates  of  what? — 
of  free  silver  have  been  organized  and  au-j^ressive,  have  held  mass  meetings 
and  conventions,  have  lobbied  in  Washington  - 

If  there  hiis  been  a  free-silver  lobby  in  this  city  since  the  present 
session  of  Congress  it  has  been  my  misfortune  to  be  so  insigniM- 
cant  that  not  one  member  of  it  has  ever  approached  me  on  the 
subject — 

and  have  used  every  possible  influence  to  advance  their  cause  and  to  en- 
danger the  imeondiiional  lepeal  of  the  silver-purchase  clause.  It  is  time 
for  vigorous  counteraction  on  the  part  of  all  who  advocate  sound  flnance 
and  a  currency  good  the  world  over. 

Mr.  ALLEN.  Will  the  Senator  from  Mississippi  permit  me 
to  call  his  attention  to  a  fact? 

Mr.  GEORGE.     Cerhainly. 

Mr.  ALLEN.  The  Washington  Post  of  yesterday  morning 
contained  a  dispatch  announcing  the  fact  that  the  New  York 
banks  are  already  engaged  in  retiring  the  new  circulation  taken 
out  within  the  last  few  weeks.  They  are  doing  it,  I  suppose, 
preparatory  to  another  panic,  or  for  the  continuation  of  the  ex- 
isting panic. 

Mr.  GEORGE.  They  are  retiring  these  cleai'ing- house  certifi- 
cates? 

Mr.  ALLEN.  No;  retiring  the  new  national-bank  note  cir- 
culation. 

Mr.  GEORGE.  There  is  no  accounting  for  what  they  will  do. 
Anything  which  the  devilish  ingenuity  of  man  can  invent  will 
be  done  to  oppress  the  people  in  order  that  they  may  send  their 
clamors  to  this  Chamber  and  force  us  to  pass  the  pending  bill. 
I  proceed  with  the  circular. 

It  is  time  for  vigorous  counteraction  on  the  part  of  all  who  advocate  sound 
finance  and  a  currency  good  the  world  over. 

We  therefore  indorse  the  action  of  the  Dry  Goods  Economist  in  seeking 
to  arouse  the  sound  dry-goods  trade  throughout  the  country  to  work  for 
their  own  interests— 

Ah,  Mr.  President,  to  work  for  their  own  interests  I  It  would 
not  do  to  let  it  stand  that  way,  and  they  said  it  first,  and  then, 
by  a  sort  of  afterthought,  added — 

and,  at  the  same  time,  those  of  the  whole  country.  Let  each  dry-goods  man 
exert  himself  to  focus  populr.r  sentiment  in  his  locality  and  to  secure  direct 
pressure  upon  doubtful  Kepresentatives  or  Senators  from  his  State  in  favor 
of  unconditional  repeal— 

I  desire  to  call  the  attention  of  Senators  who  have  said  that 
they  do  not  mean  by  repeal  the  demonetization  of  silver  to  the 
next  four  words — 
In  favor  of  unconditional  repeal  and  no  free  coinage.    In  this  emergency— 

This  is  in  capital  letters — 
talking  is  useless,  petitions  are  of  no  value.    Pressure— 

Whatis  that?    If  petitions  and  if  talk  will  not  do,  then  what 

486 3 


34 

is  the  pressure?    They  do  not  disclose  that,  but  say  talking  will 
not  do — 

pressure  on  individual  legislators  from  the  electors  is  the  only  method  of 
assuriuR  success  in  this  momentous  movement. 

There  are  about  100  names  signed  to  this  circular.  I  ara  sorry 
the  capacities  of  the  Public  Pi-inting'  Office  will  not  allow  the 
facsimile  signatures  of  these  important  men  to  go  into  the 
Record. 

THE    REPEAL  BILD  MEANS    THAT  SILVEn  COINAGE   SHALL  FOREVER  CEASE. 

I  do  not  think  anybody  doubts  now  that  the  issue  is  squarely 
made  by  this  bill  between  a  total  cessation  of  the  coinage  of 
silver  forever  and  free  coinage.  That  is  the  issue.  Wo  must 
meet  it.  We  can  not  evade  it.  We  must  either  hereafter  hive 
the  money  of  the  Constitution,  gold  and  silver,  as  declared  in 
the  Democratic  platform  of  18^4,  or  we  must  turn  over  to  the 
banks  the  great  power  and  the  necessary  governmental  func- 
tion of  furnishing  the  currency  for  the  people  in  such  amounts 
and  at  such  times  as  they  deem  proper.  That,  sir,  is  the  true 
issue  now  made  by  the  bill  to  repeal  the  purchasing  clause  of  the 
Sherman  law. 

On  this  issue  my  opinion  has  long  been  made  up.  In  Febru- 
ary, 1884,  on  a  bill  then  jiending  in  this  body  to  allow  the  banks 
an"increase  in  the  circulation  on  their  deposits  of  bonds,  it  was 
argued  in  opposition  to  the  amendment  offered  by  the  Senator 
from  Missouri  [Mr.  Vest] — increasing  the  circulation  of  the 
United  States  legal-tender  Treasury  notes — that  the  regulation 
of  the  volume  of  currency  should  be  left  to  the  national  banks. 

THE  POWER  TO  REGULATE  THE  CURRENCY  CAN  NOT  SAFELY  BE  LEFT  TO 
THE  BANKS. 

I  said,  on  the  23d  day  of  that  month,  in  supporting  the  amend- 
ment: 

The  question  now  before  us  is  whether  it  is  proper  to  leave  this  power  (of 
regulating  the  volume  of  the  currency)  in  the  Government  or  to  vest  it  in  the 
banks.  I  do  not  believe  it  is  a  safe  power  in  the  bunks.  I  believe  it  Isa}|reat 
power,  which  is  capable  of  being  used  for  the  destruction  of  the  biismess 
and  interests  of  the  people.  If  confided  to  the  banks  *  *  *  the  banks  will 
issue  their  notes  or  regulate  the  volume  of  the  currency,  g.ccording  to  their 
own  intci-ests.  *  *  *  if  it  be  to  their  interest  to  contract,  they  will  con- 
tract.   If  it  be  to  their  interest  to  expand  the  currency,  they  will  expand  it 

It  was  shown  then,  what  ought  not  to  be  forgotten  now,  that 
the  banks  contracted  the  currency  whilst  that  bill  was  under 
consideration  by  over  $2,000,000  in  one  week.  This  was  done  to 
secure  the  passage  of  the  bill.  I  also  showed  on  that  occasion 
that  the  banks  on  several  previous  occasions  had  contracted  their 
currency  in  order  to  secure  political  not  business  ends. 

In  the  same  speech,  in  reference  to  a  statement  of  the  Senator 
from  New  Jersey,  that  the  national-bank  system  was  a  pet  child 
of  Congress,  I  said; 

I  want  uo  ]->et  children  of  the  Government  and  no  stepchildren.  Let  al 
her  children  be  treated  alike.  Whether  they  have  money  in  the  national 
banks,  or  whether  they  delve  in  the  mines,  or  whether  they  work  in  the  fac- 
tories, or  plow  in  the  llelds,  or  pursue  any  other  calling,  they  are  entitled  to 
equal  rights  and  equal  privileges.  So  long  as  I  hold  a  seat  on  this  floor  I 
shall  not,  under  any  pressure,  cast  a  vote  which  will  give  to  any  privileged 
class,  to  anyi>et  children  of  the  Government,  a  privilege  and  advantage  de- 
nied to  the  groat  mass  of  the  people  themselves. 

I  stand  by  those  sentiments  to-day,  and  standing  by  them  I 
shall  not  vote  for  the  repeal  of  the  Sherman  act,  nor  will  I  vote 

486 


35 

for  that  other  bill  which  attempts  to  increase  the  currency  by 
giving-  a  privilege  to  the  national  banks  to  issue  more  of  their 
circiiiation  on  bonds  already  deposited. 

The  contest,  sir,  between  the  bunks  and  the  people,  as  made  by 
this  bill,  involves  much  of  interest,  the  deepest  interest  to  the 
people  on  the  one  side  and  to  the  banks  on  the  other. 

If  silver  is  to  be  suppressed  as  full  legal-tender  money,  if  it  is 
to  bo  limited  in  amount  to  a  degree  Lhat  it  may  be  redeemed  in 
gold  instead  of  performing  its  constitutional  function  of  money, 
absolute  money,  with  no  necessity  for  red.emption,  then  its  place 
will  be  supplied  with  bank  paper  and  other  banking  contrivimces. 
For  the  monometallist  will  not  let  the  people  have  greenbacks 
or  legal-tender  notes.  This  supply  will  not  be  full,  but  only  pai'- 
tial.  It  will  not  be  to  the  full  need  of  the  people,  but  only  to 
the  extent  needful  to  the  interest  of  the  banks. 

BANKS    WISH    TO    SUBSTITUTE    THEIR    NOTES    l^OR    SILVER    AND    CONTRACT 
THE  CURRENCY. 

The  business,  sir,  as  I  have  described  it,  of  lending  money  of 
depositors  to  the  extent  shown,  so  thut  there  shall  be  $G  loaned 
to  $1  kept  for  redemption,  is  rather  a  profitable  one  to  the  banks, 
however  hazardous  to  the  community.  I  have  stated  the  de- 
posits in  all  the  b.inks  to  bo  $4,91-1,194,511;  and  the  loans  were 
l4,o():2,<)30,557,  being  more  than  •$()  loaned  to  $1  of  capital. 

But  as  we  have  to  deal  more  directly  with  the  national  banks, 
which  are  under  Federal  .jurisdiction  and  supervision,  it  will  be 
be  best  to  state  their  condition  and  operation  separately. 

The  stock  of  all  national  banks  on  September  30,  1892,  was 
$686,(501,000.  On  that  basis,  after  paying  proper  dividends,  they 
had  a  surplus  of  $-138,900,000:  undivicled  profits,  $101,610,000.  They 
had  thus  gained  $340,500,000  more  than  their  legitimate  divi- 
dends, or  about  50  per  cent  on  their  capital. 

At  the  same  time  they  owned  also  of  United  States 

bonds - --.. $185,500,000 

Stocks  and  other  bonds ]  54,  500.  000 

Real  estate 87,  800,  000 

Due  from  United  States  Treasury. 8,  200,  000 

Due  from  other  sources 43,000,000 

Total 479,100,000 

This  would  seem  to  be  doing  very  well,  as  these  investments 
alone  amounted  to  about  two-thirds  of  their  capital.  After  hav- 
ing invested  two-thirds  of  their  caj^ital  as  I  have  stated  they 
lend  other  people's  money  to  the  amount  of  $2,171,000,000  at  in- 
tei-est. 

This  intei'est.  however,  does  not  go  to  the  owners  of  the  money, 
but  to  the  bank .  With  such  profits  in  the  pi'csent  system,  of 
course  the  national  banks  want  more  circulation  and  less  real 
money,  and  hence  wc  must  demonetize  silver:  must  repeal  the 
purchasing  clause  of  the  Sherman  law. 

If  we  had  more  real  money — if  gold  and  silyer,  the  money  of 
the  Constitution,  were  in  abundance,  there  would  be  less — very 
much'  less — need  for  the  contrivances  used  as  substitutes  for 
money,  less  need  for  the  national-bank  notes,  less  need  for  put- 
ting in  peril  the  business  of  the  whole  country  by  the  banks 
lending  their  depositors'  money  to  the  dangerous  extent  I  havo 

48G 


36 

pointed  out.  So  the  banks  and  others  who  have  money  to  lend 
don't  want  the  competition  cominj?  from  Iree  coinage  of  silver. 
They  don't  want  the  money  of  the  Cons'titution  to  compote  with 
their  contrivances,  their  ingenious,  but  unsafe,  substitutes  for 
real  money. 

PLAN  FOR  A  SATE  AND  SUFFICIENT  CDBRENCY. 

But  it  is  said  that  the  free  coinage  of  silver  would  give  us 
such  an  abundance  of  silver  money  as  to  cause  a  great  deprecia- 
tion in  it:  especially  it  is  said  would  there  be  a  great  ditlerence 
in  the  value  of  gold  and  silver  coin  at  the  ratio  of  16  to  1. 

Mr.  President,  I  do  not  believe  it. 

First,  restrain  all  national  banks  from  lending  any  more  than 
50  per  cent  of  their  depositors'  money.  Let  the  reserve  for  de- 
positors be  one  dollar  ifor  every  two  deposited. 

Next  prohibit  absolutely,  under  severe  ijenalties,  clearing- 
house certificates.  So  that  when  the  banks  shall  either  reck- 
lessly inflate  credits,  or  designedly  produce  commercial  crises, 
they  may  not  save  themselves  at  the  expense  of  the  people  by  the 
creation  of  an  unauthorized  currency  for  their  sole  use. 

Then  there  would  be  no  distrust,  no  want  of  confidence.  There 
would  be  no  panics.  Besides,  this  would  make  room  for  many 
millions  of  metallic  currency  to  supply  the  vacuum  occasioned 
by  this  necessary  provision  for  safety. 

Lest,  however,  we  should  create  a  stringency  in  the  money 
market  by  precipitate  action,  the  result  should  be  approached 
gradually. 

Next,  put  the  national  banks  in  process  of  taking  the  proper 
steps  for  the  final  withdrawal  of  all  their  circulation,  which 
must  como  in  1907,  when  the  last  United  States  bonds  are  paid, 
unless  Congress  so  far  sh;ill  forget  their  duty  to  the  American 
people  as  to  authorize  the  issuance  of  further  bonds  in  order  to 
be  the  basis  of  further  issuance  of  national-bank  notes. 

Let  this  withdrawalbo  gradual  so  as  to  prevent  sudden  con- 
traction. Then,  sir.  as  I  advocated  in  1884  in  the  speech  from 
which  I  have  quoted,  ]irohibit  the  coinage  of  gold  in  coins  of  a 
denomination  less  than  $10,  and  prohibit  the  issuanceof  all  paper 
money  under  a  like  denomination  except  silver  certificates. 

With  these  provide  for  the  free  and  unlimited  coinage  of  sil- 
ver, equally  with  gold,  at  the  old  ratio  of  16  to  1.  Coin  all  silver 
whereverproduced  and  all  gold  ;;s  they  come  to  the  mints.  Coin 
not  only  the  new  silver  and  gold  that  may  be  mined,  but  recoin 
all  thu  gold  and  silver  coins  in  the  world  that  may  come  to  our 
mints.  There  will  be  no  iimndation  of  this  counti'y  by  silver. 
If  silver  sliall  come  to  us  from  foi-eign  countries  it  will  scarcely 
come  us  a  gift:  if  so,  then  so  much  the  better.  If  it  comes  in  the 
way  of  trr.de,  then  it  will  come  oaly  by  an  exchange  for  it  of  our 
commodities  on  teriiis  f.i  vorable  to  us.  When  we  prefer  the  silver 
to  the  things  given  for  it  -ve  can  not  be  injured.  Then,  sir,  there 
will  be  competition  with  the  banks,  and  no  surplus  of  uncoined 
metal,  denied  the  right  of  free  coinage  in  order  to  fix  a  commer- 
cial iM-ice  below  the  mint  value  of  silver. 

There  would  be  no  inllux  of  silver  coins  from  Europe  to  our 
mints.  For  first,  Europe  his  no  more  silver  coin  than  is  re- 
quired by  her  commerce,  and  not  as  much.  The  scramble  for 
goid  now  going  on,  as  described  by  the  Senator  from  Ohio  [Mr. 
Sherman],  is  significant.     It  means  there  is  in  the  opinion  of 

486 


37 

European  financiers  not  enough  gold  for  the  world's  use  and  not 
likely  to  be.  Why  should  there  bo  a  scr;imblc  for  it  if  there  were 
plenty?  The  annual  product  of  gold,  counting  the  half  c^^'ntury 
together,  is  a  diminishing  quantity.  The  annual  con.^umption  of 
it  in  the  arts  is  an  iuci/easing  quantity. 

INCREASE  OF  SILVER  TO  KEEP  PACE  WITH  INCREASE  OF   POPULATION  AND 

BUSINESS. 

The  steady  increase  in  population  and  in  commerce  creates 
increased  demands  for  gold  and  silver  beyond,  far  beyond,  the 
supply.  Europe,  at  least,  must  keep  up  their  present  proportion 
of  silver  coin— subordinate  coin.  The  amount  must  not  only  be 
kept  up,  but  increased  with  the  population.  The  waste  by  wear 
of  silver  circulating  so  rapidly  in  everyday  life  and  its  consump- 
tion in  the  arts  create  a  constant  large  demand  for  the  new  pro- 
duction. Europe  will  in  this  way  not  only  retain  its  present 
silver,  but  consume  in  conjunction  with  Asia  and  the  silver  States 
in  America  the  annual  production  outside  of  the  Unittd  States. 
The  Senator  from  Texas  [Mr.  MiLL.s]  thought,  if  I  understood 
him  correctly,  that  all  the  silver  production  is  about  being  con- 
sumed in  the  arts  now. 

The  world's  production  of  silver  in  1892  was  $196,005,200,  of 
which  the  United  States  produced  $74,989,900,  about  five  thir- 
teenths of  the  whole. 

The  consumption  in  the  arts  in  the  United  States  alone,  as  es- 
timated by  the  report  of  the  Director  of  the  Mi  at  fo'.-  1S92,  is 
$19,329,000  of  gold,  and  of  silver  $9,301, OjO.  Dr.  So 'tbeer  esti- 
mates the  total  annual  loss  of  gold  in  the  world  by  abrasion  and  in 
the  arts  at  $43,506,253,  of  silver  at  $23,730,000. 

So  I  think  there  is  little  to  fear  from  a  superabundance  of  these 
metals.  The  danger  is  that  thei'e  will  not  be  eno.igh  of  these 
metals  for  the  money  use  of  the  world,  and  we  i^hall  be  driven 
to  resort  to  the  miserable  devices  and  contrivances  to  which  I 
have  alluded. 

I  now  come  to  the  special  needs  of  the  people  of  the  United 
States  for  money  supply. 

Mr.  COCKRELL.  Would  it  interrupt  the  Senator  from  Mis- 
sissippi just  to  call  his  attention  to  ihe  dilference  between  the 
production  of  gold  in  the  world  and  its  coinage'.-' 

Mr.  GEORGE.  No;  it  will  not.  I  should  like  to  have  the 
Senator  st'ite  that. 

Mr.  COCKRELL.  From  1873  to  1892  the  production  of  gold 
in  the  world  was $2.210,961,206, while  thecoinage  w:.s$2,TST,714,- 
679,  or  over  $500,000,000  more  of  gold  coin  thin  the  world  pro- 
duced, while  the  consumption  of  gold  for  industrial  purposes  is 
admitted  by  all  writers  to  be  over  one-half,  or  5"'  per  cent. 

Mr.  GEORGE.     That  is,  then,  the  recoinnge  of  old  coin. 

Mr.  COCKRELL.  It  must  have  been  recoinage  beyond  all 
question.  No  man  can  to-day  come  within  $  H;0,biiO.O(nt  of  the 
amount  of  coined  gold  in  the  world,  and  1  challenge  any  one  to 
do  it.  You  have  no  method  on  earth  by  which  you  can  deter- 
mine the  exact  amount  of  gold  in  the  world,  and  I  say,  taking 
thefuct  of  free  coinage  and  the  estimate  of  the  product  of  gold 
and  the  coin.nge  of  gold,  the  amount  of  gold  in  the  world  to-day 
is  $")GO.<;00,0(K)  more  than  can  ever  bo  fovmd. 

Mr.  GEORGE.     I  am  very  much  obliged  to  the  Senator  from 
Missouri.     He   has  made  a  very  valuable  contribution  to  my 
speech  as  well  as  to  the  general  information  of  the  country. 
486 


38 

Hon.  J.  H.  Walker,  in  an  address  at  the  World's  Fair  Con- 
press,  states  that  our  consumption  of  commodities  has  been  three 
times  greater,  i)er  capita,  than  that  of  Europe;  making^  oui-  mar- 
ket the  equal  of  200,000,01)0  of  European  people.  He  further 
stated,  that  we  consumed  over  one-third  of  the  goods  manufac- 
tured in  the  world,  whicli  equals  a  market  for  manufactured 
goods  of  over  G00,O0U,00U  of  average  people. 

Mr.  Walker,  I  believe,  is  a  member  of  Congress  from  the 
State  of  Massachusetts.  I  thought  I  had  a  little  pamphlet  here 
which  contained  his  speech.  He  is  evidently  a  man  of  ability; 
but  I  see  I  have  left  it  at  my  room  and  I  can  not  produce  it.  He 
is  a  monometallist,  and  it  was  a  monometallist  speech  that  he 
made. 

Mr.  GRAY.    I  have  it  here.    [Handing  wamphlet.] 

Mr.  GEORGE.    Yes;  this  is  it: 

Hon  J.  If.  WALKER,  on  cheaper  rates  and  better  money.  Our  bad  mone- 
tary sy.'siera  thoroughly  exposed.  You  can  not  afford  not  to  I'ead  this. 
Carry  it  in  your  pocket  until  read.  From  the  official  report  of  the  World's 
Con!,'ress  of  180.3.  Department  of  Commerce  and  Finance,  General  Division 
of  Banking  and  Finance, 

Then  there  is  a  preface  to  it  in  which  Mr.  Walked  is  spoken 
of  very  highly,  but  not  any  more  highly  than  his  due  as  I  un- 
derstand. 

Mr.  COCKRELL.  I  suggest  to  the  Senator  that  probably  he 
is  one  of  the  authors  of  the  Sherman  act.  I  think  he  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  conference  committee  on  the  part  of  the  other  House 
that  agreed  to  the  Sherman  bill. 

Mr.  GEORGE.  At  all  events,  there  is  a  statement  made  by 
this  eminent  man  and  monometallist  to  the  effect  that  we  con- 
sume in  the  United  States  three  times  per  capita  the  consump- 
tion of  Europe  and  that  we  consuine  as  much  as  six  hundred 
million  of  the  average  population  of  the  world.  These  are  im- 
portant facts.  I  believe  he  has  stated  it  correctly,  and  if  he  has 
made  any  mistake  he  has  understated  it,  except  that  I  shall  be 
compelled  to  show  before  I  get  throagh  that  there  is  a  little 
underconsumption  going  on  just  now  on  the  part  of  the  farmers. 

Mr.  GRAY.    I  hope  the  Senator  will  read  the  whole  speech. 

Mr.  GEORGE.  I  do  not  agree  with  the  rest  of  it,  but  I  won- 
der that  a  man  should  ever  start  out  with  such  a  fact  as  that  and 
arrive  at  the  conclusion  wliich  he  reached. 

I  say  I  believe  this  statement  to  be  under  the  mark  rather  than 
excessive.  This  consumption  will  largely  increase  under  the 
prosperity  cQpiing  from  free  coinage,  as  I  shall  show  hereafter. 
I  shall  show  that,  so  far  as  the  farmers  are  concerned,  consump- 
tion has  been  reduced  to  the  lowest  point  by  virtue  of  the  want 
and  distress  occasioned  by  the  falling  prices,  which  seem  to  have 
no  terror  for  the  Senator  from  Texas. 

Our  population  is  increasing  more  rapidly  than  that  of  any 
other  nation.  It  is  also  advancing  more  rapidly  in  intelligence 
and  refinement  than  any  other.  It  increased  at  the  rate  of  very 
nearly  2.3  per  cent  (24.80)  in  the  last  decade.  That  rate  would 
give,  in  round  numbers,  an  increase  for  this  decade  of  over  15,000,- 
000  and  in  the  next  of  over  10,000.000— one  million  and  a  half 
a  year  for  this  decade,  aild  nearly  two  millions  a  year  for  the 
next— or  one  million  seven  hundred  thousand  as  the  annual  aver- 
age increase  for  the  two  decades  ending  in  1910.  To  keep  up  the 
present  per  capita  circulation  of  $25  it  would  requii'e  an  annual 

486 


39 

addition  to  the  circulation  of  over  $42,000,000.  Our  gold  produc- 
tion for  coinage  is  Only  ^13,000,0,  0  and  a  fraction  over,  locking 
about  $2!), 000,000  to  keep  up  the  present  per  capit  i.  Whence 
iive  we  to  get  it?  The  banks  will  answer  from  bank  paper.  And 
they  will  answer  truly  if  we  get  it  at  all. 

France  has  a  per  capita  circulation  of  $41.07.  Ours  is  $25,  or 
about  $17  less  per  he;id.  Franco  has,  according  to  the  British 
Statistical  Abstract,  but  a  little  more  foreign  commerce  than  we 
have;  yet  her  money  is  not  excessive,  though  about  G7  percent 
greater  per  capita  than  ours. 

The  population  of  the  United  States  in  1890  was.  62, 602,  250 
Add  three  years  at  1,500,000  a  year 4,500,000 

67, 162, 250 

Say  67,000,000. 
To  have  the  French  per  capita  we  must  in  round 

numbers  have  to-day $2,791,000,000 

But  we  only  have 1,601,000,000 

Making  deficit  to-day  of --    1,190,000,000 

which  must  be  made  up  in  some  way. 
Our  population  will  increase  in  numbers  for  the  two  decades 

at  1,700,000  a  year,  or  34,000,000  for  the  two  decades. 

For  the  seven  remaining  years  of  this  decade  we 
must  haye,  to  give  us  the  French  per  capita  to 
this  increase,  1,700,000,  multiplied  by  41.67,  to 
make  the  addition  for  each  year,  which  is  $70,- 
779,000,  and  for  seven  years  it  would  be $495,  453, 000 

Add  to  this  the  present  deficit  of 1, 190,  000,  000 

We  have  to  be  made  up  from  now  until  1890 $1,  685, 453, 000 

Now,  that  is  the  demand.     Let  us  turn  to  the  supply. 

The  present  silver  bullion  supply  of  the  United  States  is  sev- 
enty-four millions  a  year,  of  which  about  ten  millions  is  used  in 
the  arts,  leaving  sixty-four  millions  for  coinage. 

Supposing  all  this  $64,000,000  shall  be  coined  (and  that  is  a  very 
large  estimate,  as  shown  by  the  statement  of  t^he  Senator  from 
Missouri),  it  would  make  but  $448,000,000  in  silver  coinage  in  seven 
years.  From  this  silver  coinage  alone  we  would  lack,  in  1900, 
$1,137,453,000  of  having  enough  money  to  equal  the  French  per 
capita.  Then,  if  we  resort  to  gold  to  make  up  the  deficit,  we  lind 
the  world's  annual  production  of  gold,  in  1802,  was  $130,000,- 
OOO,  of  which  the  United  States  produced  $33,000,000.  a  little 
more  than  one-fourth.  Of  the  presentgold  coinage  of  the  world, 
say  $3,500,000,000,  we  had,  in  lS92,in  cii^culatiou  $408,000,000,  or 
less  than  one-eighth  of  the  whole.  Our  stock  altogether  was 
over  six  hundred  million,  or  one-sixth  of  the  stock  of  the  woi'ld. 
So,  whilst  we  have  produced  more  than  one-fourth  of  the  whole 
gold  production  of  the  world,  we  have  in  circulation  less  than 
one-eighth  of  that  metal  in  circulation  in  the  world. 

The  world's  coinage  of  gold  for  the  years  1889. 1800,  and  1891 
was  $637,300,338,  or  an  annual  average  of  5212,435,446.  Deduct 
from  this  annual  average  the  recoinageof  two  years.  $16,234,589, 
v.-e  have  for  amount  of  annual  new  coinage  of  the  world,  in 
ro-nd  numbers,  $196,000,000.  If  we  got  one-eighth  of  thit  it 
would  be  $24,500,000,  and  according  to  that  we  should  be  short 

486 


40 

of  the  French  per  capita  in  liiOO,  counting  coinage  of  both  gold 
and  silver,  $'.)41,2");5,00O.  Bat,  sir,  while  we  produce  one-fourth 
of  the  world's  gold  iind  have  gold  circulation  to  the  amount  of 
only  one-eighth,  I  will  state  the  casj,  by  giving  us  not  only  the 
whole  silver  production  of  the  United  States,  but  also  all  the 
gold  production. 

The  gold  production,  we  have  seen,  amounted  in  1892  to 
$33,000,000;  of  this  sum  we  consumed  in  the  arts  $19,329,000, 
leaving  for  coinage  only  $13,671,000,  and  on  that  basis,  coining  all 
our  gold  and  silver  not  used  in  the  arts,  we  would  lack  in  1900 
$1,041.7(33,000  in  having  as  much  money  in  circulation  per  capita 
as  the  French  now  have.  In  1910  we  should  lack  $250,000,000  of 
having  cum^oncy  enough  to  make  us  equal  to  the  French  per 
capitn.  Then  for  the  next  decade,  from  1910  to  1920,  we  shall 
find  thit  the  total  production,  if  not  increased,  will  not  keep 
pace  with  the  increase  of  our  population.  This  is  certain,  if  we 
take  into  consideration  the  losses  by  consumption  in  the  arts,  by 
abrasion,  by  sinking  in  rivers  and  seas  and  hiding  without  dis- 
covery afterward.  In  this  estimate  no  account  has  been  taken 
of  the  destrLiction  of  the  national-bank  currency,  which  must 
take  place,  thank  God,  in  1907.  unless  we  issue,  which  God  for- 
bid, bonds  for  their  accommodation. 

But,  sir,  we  ought  not  to  confine  ourselves  to  the  amount  of  cur- 
rency per  capita  which  France  has.  The  French  are  the  most 
economical  people  in  the  world  in  their  living,  and  we  are  the 
most  extravagant. 

The  two  peoples  stand  at  the  two  extremes  of  greatest  frugal- 
ity and  very  libei-al  expenditures.  The  people  of  the  United 
States,  according  to  Mr.  Walker,  as  I  havj  quoted,  consume 
three  times  per  capita  what  is  consumed  by  the  people  of  Europe 
and  consume  one- third  of  all  the  manufactured  goods  in  the  world. 
Thi.-n.  sir.  it  would  seem  that  we  ought  to  have  at  least  three 
times  the  amount  of  currency  of  the  French,  whilst  we  have  a 
little  over  one-half. 

I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  if  our  currency  of  real  money  was 
$100  per  head  it  would  not  be  too  much,  but  the  greatest  of  bless- 
ings. But  fi"ee  coinage  of  silver  will  not  give  us  even  the  French 
per  capita,  even  if  we  retained  all  the  paper  money  we  now  have 
in  circulation. 

But  I  do  not  mean  to  rely  on  general  statements  to  Throve  that 
our  country  ne'ds  for  actual  use  more  money  than  can  be  added 
by  the  free  coinage  of  silver  and  of  gold. 

We  h  ive  seen  that,  though  the  clearing-houses  pass  over  sixty- 
one  billions  of  trade  every  year.  These  transactions  do  not  enter 
into  or  embrace  the  ordinary  business  of  the  farmer,  laborer, 
mechanic,  and  professional  man  of  the  country.  We  have  seen 
that  for  actual  use,  by  duplications,  the  deposits  in  the  banks  of 
thecountry  reach  over$4.900,0()0,000,  and  that  on  them  (with  only 
about  nine  hundred  millions  of  capital)  are  based  loans  to  over 
four  billions,  to  a  most  dangerous  extent,  and  that  all  of  these 
contrivances  do  not  satisfy  the  whole  want  of  the  people  for 
money,  but  the  wants  of  those  only  who  borrow  from  the  banks, 
and  with  all  this  thei^e  is  an  acknowledged  deliciency  of  cur- 
rency, to  the  extent  that  international  free  bimetallic  coinage 
is  regarded  favorably  by  all  our  statesmen.  So  that  the  need 
for  more  money  is  acknowledged.    It  is  only  disputed  that  we 

486 


41 

alone  can  maintain  the  needed  increase  by  free  coinage  of  silver. 
We  can  maint  dn  it  at  par  with  gold. 

The  value  of  silver  .md  gold  buJlion  is  regulated  by  the  demand 
for  them,  like  every  other  commodity.  Of  all  the  demands  for 
these  metals  the  money  demand  is  not  only  the  most  extensive, 
but  also  the  most  urgent.  A  deficiency  in  money  to  do  the  world's 
business  is  of  all  deficiencies  the  most  universal  in  its  ruinous 
effects,  and  at  the  same  time  the  most  exigent  for  instant  re- 
moval. Hence,  as  we  have  seen,  the  devices  invented  as  substi- 
tutes for  money.  To  say,  as  thos^  who  insist  on  international 
bimetallism  admit,  that  the  people  of  the  United  States  need  for 
money  all  the  gold  and  silver  possible  to  fall  to  their  lot — for 
coining  into  money,  and  even  more  —with  all  the  substitutes  for 
money  now  or  likely  to  bo  invented,  is  to  say  that  all  such  gold 
and  silver,  when  coined,  will  perform  usefully  needed  money 
functions.  How  can  there  be,  under  these  circumstances,  a  dif- 
ference in  the  value  of  the  met-il  coinage? 

Is  there  such  need  for  money?  I  have  shown  the  needs  of 
France  and  compared  them  with  our  own  supply,  and  by  such 
comparison  I  have  shown  that  every  dollar,  both  of  gold  and  of 
silver  (without  surrendering  any  of  the  substitutes),  which  can 
be  coined  under  free  coinage  would  be  insufficient:  that  there  is 
a  dem'  nd,  and  an  urgent  demand,  for  more  and  more  money 
on  which  to  do  the  business  of  the  people,  even  on  the  French 
rate  of  money  per  capita. 

But,  sir,  we  need  more  money  than  the  French  have,  as  has 
been  shown.  And  when  all  the  gold  and  silver  in  the  world 
which  can  come  to  us  is  coined,  we  will  still  be  without  enough. 

A  PLEA  FOB  MERCY  FOR  THE  PLAIN  PEOPLE 

But,  sir,  as  this  is  the  very  point  on  which'  the  controversy 
turns,  I  must  be  indulged  in  further  argument  to  make  this  po- 
sition absolutely  impregnable.     It  can  be  so  made. 

There  are  other  business  pursuits  of  greater  interest  to  the 
people  of  the  United  States  than  banking,  traffic  in  merchandise, 
gambling  in  stocks,  dealing  in  money  and  exchanges.  Whilst 
the  devices  I  have  alluded  to  may,  if  not  obviate,  at  least  palli- 
ate the  effects  of  a  scarcity  of  money  among  these  classes,  they  do 
not  reach  or  alTect,  except  indirectly  and  remotely,  the  wants — 
the  necessities — of  the  gro.it  masses  of  our  people.  There  are  fif- 
teen States  and  Territories  in  which  there  are  no  clearing  houses. 
They  are  to  be  found  in  a  few  great  cities  in  the  other  States  far 
removed  fiom  the  great  mass  of  population,  and  they  deal  in  such 
wise  as  not  to  touch  nine-tenths  of  the  business  of  the  country. 

The  retail  trade  carried  on  in  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dif- 
ferent places,  and  amounting,  as  1  have  said,  to  more  than  double 
the  trade  of  the  country,  transported  by  railroads  and  water 
craft,  is  not  settled  for  through  clearing  houses.  In  this  trade 
the  people  need  money— cash.  Failing  to  have  it,  they  are 
forced  to  a  most  disastrous  credit  system,  in  which  interest  in 
the  shape  of  increased  profits  is  absolutely  ruinous  to  the  pro- 
ducers. However  beneficial  credit  may  be  in  large  transactions 
in  the  wholesale  business  of  the  countrj-.  in  foreign  commerce, 
in  building  railro  ids  and  ships,  and  carrjdng  on  other  great  en- 
terprise.s.  domestic  economy  teaches  with  unerring  certainty 
that  for  the  ordinary  purposes  of  life— the  retail  trade  of  the 
country — it  is  in  most  cases  disastrous;  or,  testate  it  differently, 

486 


42 

that  for  such  persons  so  buying  it  is  belter,  far  better,  that  they 
use  cash. 

Under  the  present  system  this  is  absohitely  impossible,  and 
hence  the  results,  as  we  see  them  every  day,  of  increasing-  debt 
and  distress,  mortgaging  and  pledging  property,  which,  under 
demonetization  of  silver  and  the  consequent  ai)preciation  of 
gold,  is  grinding  our  people  to  deatb. 

To  enable  the  people  to  have  cash  to  pay  for  their  daily  ex- 
penditures we  must  have  a  large  amount  of  currency,  not  locked 
in  banks  and  loaned  again  to  other  people,  as  we  have  seen  is 
don'^,  but  in  the  actual  possession  of  the  i^eople. 

Take  the  case  of  the  farmers,  who  constitute  a  little  less  than 
one-half  our  population,  and  who  furnish  by  their  toil  and  self- 
denial,  too  often  unrequited,  three-fourths  of  the  exports  of  our 
country,  and  whose  products  are  now  relied  upon  by  the  bankers 
of  New  York  to  bring  back  to  this  country  the  gold  which,  by 
their  mismanagement,  has  been  exported  to  Europe. 

We  have  seen  that  they  need  $750,000,000  ayear  to  pay  for  wages 
alone.  We  have  seen  that  their  products  amount  to  about 
$3,000,000,000  annually,  and  that  this  great  mass  of  wealth  is  cre- 
ated, in  a  Inajority  of  instances,  at  a  loss— costino-  more  to  pro- 
duce than  it  will  sell  for.  This  justifies  me,  at  least,  in  saying 
that  the  necessary  expenditures  of  the  farmers,  including  such 
luxuries  as  they  ought  to  have,  including  wages,  exceed  $1,000,- 
000,000  per  annum,  probably  twice  that  sum. 


Friday,  September  22, 189S. 

THE  PRESENT  HOPELESS  CONDITION  OF  THE  FARMER. 

Mr.  GEORGE.  Mr.  President,  I  desire  to  present  the  interest 
which  the  farnfers  of  this  country  have  in  the  silver  question. 

To  those  who  have  given  attention  to  the  matter,  it  is  known 
that  for  the  staple  markets,  crops  raised  by  our  farmers  in  the 
South  and  West— corn,  wheat  and  cotton— that  money  is  brought 
to  the  farmers  but  once  a  year.  At  the  harvest  ho  sells  and  has 
money  when,  as  happens  in  but  few  instances,  his  expenses 
have  not  exceeded  the  sales. 

In  most  cases,  however,  the  farmer,  owing  to  the  credit  system 
imposed  by  the  scarcity  of  money,  rarely  has  any  money  at  all, 
even  at  harvest.  The  process  is  a  year  of  labor  and  toil  and  ex- 
pense on  the  high  prices  of  the  credit  system;  then  the  harvest, 
and  settlement,  and  sale  on  the  low  prices  of  a  small  and  con- 
tracting currency,  whereby  no  money  remains  as  a  surplus.  The 
next  year  witnesses  the  same  dreary,  despairing,  treadmill 
round;  credit  at  enormous  prices  for  supplies,  charged  as  a  ne- 
cessity of  the  system  at  disastrous,  even  absolutely  ruinous  rates; 
then  an  enforced  sale  of  the  crop  at  harvest  for  whatever  prices 
the  speculators  in  futures,  and  others,  may  fix;  an  application  of 
the  proceeds  to  the  debts  thus  incurred,  with  little  or  no  re- 
mainder, and  most  frequently  with  a  deficit.  And  then  the  next 
year  the  same  thing  over  again,  and  thus  continuing  year  by 
year  the  never  ending  remoi'seless  system,  until  a  merciful  Prov- 
idence shall  remove  the  victim  from  the  scene  of  these  infernal 

486 


43 

operations— operations  flowing  directly  from  the  action  of  Con- 
s;ves5. 

Death,  sir,  is  the  end  of  the  troubles,  it  would  seem;  but  not 
so,  the  inheritance  of  debts  and  ruinous  finances  he  leaves  to 
his  children,  i^erpetuates  through  them  the  horrors  from  which 
he  has  escaped. 

At  this  jioiat,  Mr.  President,  I  think  it  right  to  bring  some 
evidence  to  the  Senate  that  the  statements  wliich  I  have  made 
are  recognized  as  correct  by  the  highest  authoritie;i  in  this  coun- 
try. I  wantnow  to  show  the  condition  of  the  firrmer  in  this  year 
18t).'>  and  in  this  month  of  September,  when  wo  are  gravely  de- 
■  bating  intheAmei'ican  Congress  whether  we  shall  not  takeaway 
from  him  what  I  believe  is  his  only  chance  of  ever  battering  his 
condition. 

FALL  IN  VBIOES  OF  FARM  PKODUCTS  GtlEATEn  THAN  DECEEASB  IN  COST  OF 
PRODUCTION. 

It  has  been  urged,  Mr.  President,  by  two  Senators  on  this 
floor  that  the  fall  in  prices  of  the  things  v/hich  the  farmer  buys 
is  a  compensation  to  him  for  the  fall  in  prices  of  the  things 
which  he  produces  and  sells.  The, argument  seemed  a  little 
plausible  at  first  blush,  but  when  we  come  to  look  at  the  matter 
in  all  its  bearings  it  will  bo  found  that  it  amounts  to  nothing  as 
an  alleviation  to  the  farmer  of  his  present  ills. 

It  is  claimed  that  there  has  been  a  reduction  in  the  cost  of 
producing  the  farmer's  crops.  I  I'cad  from  the  New  York  Sun 
a  very  able  argument  on  that  subject,  published  September  10, 
1893: 

For  more  than  fifteen  years,  1878  to  1893,  all  theRveat  primary  accricultural 
staples  have  heen  declining  in  price.  altUoiiy;h  there  have  been  periods  when 
the  price  of  some  one  wa.'s  high  for  a  limited  time,  This  is  more  notably 
true  as  respects  secondary  products,  especially  meats  and  lard;  but  the 
trend  of  the  whole  scale  has  been  constantly  downward,  and  the  general 
price  level  at  the  end  of  each  year  was  lower  than  at  its  beginning.  In  the 
meantime,  there  has  been  no  material  reduction  in  the  cost  of  production, 
the  self-binder,  the  gang  plow,  mower,  hay  tedder,  and  hay  loader,  and  all 
other  great  imxjrovements  in  agrioultm-al  machinery,  having  come  into  use 
prior  to  1878.  Subsequent  modifications  and  improvements  have  beenin  the 
direction  of  greater  facility  in  operation  rather  than  o!  lessened  cost. 

He  further  proceeds: 

While  the  cost  of  production  can  not  have  been  lessened  as  much  as  5  per 
cent  since  1875 — 

I  speak  with  the  knowledge  of  myself  and  of  other  Senators 
around  me  when  I  say  that  the  cost  of  production  ol'  the  great 
staple  crop  of  the  South  has  not  decreased  one  cent — 

While  the  cost  of  production  can  not  have  been  lessened  as  much  as  5  per 
cent  since  1875,  prices  for  the  staple  products  of  the  farm  averaged  82  per 
cent  greater  during  the  five  years  ending  with  1875  than  now. 

Then  there  is  a  table,  Mr.  President,  which  I  will  have  inserted 
in  my  remarks;  but  I  will  now  only  state  the  result  of  that  table 
so  far  as  cotton  is  concerned.  It  is  sfctted  in  this  table  tliat  the 
average  value  of  the  production  of  an  acre  of  cotton  in  1873  was 
$28.01;  and  that  the  average  now  is  $10.60,  -which  I  think  is 
rather  extravagant.  So  it  will  be  seen  that  there  has  been  a 
fall  in  the  value  of  the  production  of  an  acre  of  cotton,  from  the 
average  for  the  years  betv/ecn  lSG6and  1870,  of  $28.01  to  $10. 60 — 
a  reduction  of  about  6(3  per  cent. 


44 


The  following  table  shows,  In  flve-year  averages,  the  gold  value  per  acre 
(in  the  local  farm  markets)  of  the  proUict  of  t'ae  five  staples  named,  for 
quinqxieuuial  periods,  sine.'  IKiV.  nnd  an  e.stiinai',>  of  the  value,  with  average 
yields,  of  an  acre  under  each  such  st:iple  in  I8.'3  at  i. resent  prices: 


Staples. 

Value  of  an  acre's  product— 

1866-1870. 

1871-187.0. 

1876-1880. 

1881-1885. 

1886-1890. 

1893. 

Corn    

SI  2. 84 
13.16 
10.92 
13.28 
28.01 

S11.30 
11.90 
9.81 
14.38 
28.55 

$9.62 
12.00 
8.58 
11.57 
17.65 

$10.25 
10.20 
9.17 
11.15 
15.63 

$8.81 
9.07 
7.iJ0 
10.19 
13.84 

$8.35 

Wheat  

6.00 

Oats 

5.75 

Hay       

10.00 

Cotton 

10.65 

Total          

78.21 
15.64 

75.94 
15.19 

59.42 
11.88 

56.40 
11.28 

49.44 
9.89 

40.75 

Average  

8.15 

The  writer  goes  on  further  to  assert  that  which  I  can  bear 
testimony  is  true,  as  you  can,  sir:  (Mr.  Jones  of  Arkansas  in 
the  chair.) 

If  as  is  altogether  probable,  the  revenue  derived  from  the  cultivation  of 
each  acre  of  the  staples  named— 

Cotton — 

has  not  since  1885  been  in  excess  of  the  cost  of  production,  then  it  is  readily 
seen  that  the  workers  among  the  30.000.000  who  inhabit  the  farms  ot  the 
United  Slates  have  for  eight  years  received  no  more  than  laborers'  wages 
and  could  purchase  but  the  barest  necessaries. 

Any  Senator  here  representing  a  cotton  State  knows  that  to 
be  true.  But  it  is  said,  sir,  both  by  the  Senator  from  Delaware 
[Mr.  Gray]  and  the  Senator  from  Texas  [Mr.  MiLLS]  that  whilst 
there  has  been  a  great  fall  in  the  prices  of  those  articles  which 
the  farmer  sells,  there  has  also  been  a  great  reduction  in  the 
prices  of  things  which  he  has  to  buy.  Let  us  see  whether  that 
is  any  sufficient  compensation  to  the  furmer  who  has  seen  the 
proceeds  of  his  farm  reduced  in  every  $1U0  in  1873  to  about  $33 
now. 

In  1873,  the  date  of  the  demonetization  of  silver,  cotton  was 
worth  $94  per  bale  of  500  pounds.  An  average  laborer,  as  is  well 
known,  in  the  South — orrather,  an  industrious  laborer— can  pro- 
duce on  average  land  5  bales  of  cotton  per  annum;  so  that  the 
average  production  of  cotton  of  a  good,  fair  laborer  in  1873 
amounted  to  $4T0. 

Mr.  FRYE.     Was  that  in  gold? 

Mr.  GEORGE.  The  tables  presented  here  do  not  show.  I  have 
taken  these  figures  both  from  the  Senator  from  Texas  [Mr.  MiLLS] 
and  from  th  i  Senator  from  Delaware  [Mr.  Gray].  I  see  that  in  the 
tables  of  the  Senator  from  Texas  he  refers  to  the  gold  value  of 
the  silver  dollar.    My  figures  are  taken  from  those  statements. 

The  same  laborer  now  can  produce  the  same  number  of  bales, 
which  at  the  present  price,  $oG..5Uper  bale,  makes  $182.50  as  the 
product  of  his  year's  labor. 

Of  course.  Mr.  President,  in  that  year  1873  and  in  the  year  1893 
this  laborer  produced  other  things  for  consumption— not  for  sale. 
He  produc  d  some  corn,  oats,  potatoes,  and  things  of  that  sort 
that  are  consumed  on  th  e  farm ,  but  this  refers  to  his  market  crop. 

Cotton  was  then,  in  1873,  capable  of  producing  $470  for  each 
laborer.     In  1893  it  produces  $182.50. 

Now  let  us  see  if  the  Senator  from  Delaware  and  the  Senator 

4» 


45 

from  Texas  are  rig'bt  in  saying  that  the  reduction  of  prices  in 
other  things  has  compensated  the  farmer.  Tliu  SenDtorfrom 
Delaw.a  e  h  s  prcd  i.ced  a  taVjIe  showing  the  full  of  prices  of  agri- 
cultural imi)leinents.  I  am  talking  now  solely  of  cotton  farm- 
ing. I  know  nothing  about  wheat-farming.  I  am  engaged 
in  cotton-raising  mys  If,  and  have  been  during  all  this  period. 
In  fact  that  is  the  only  business  I  have,  except  to  be  a  member 
of  this  body.  After  looking  very  carefully  over  the  tables  pre- 
sented by  the  Senator  from  Delaware,  I  can  say  that  I  make  a  lib- 
eral estimate  when  I  stato  that  the  difference  in  the  cost  of 
an  outfit  of  agricultural  implements  for  a  laborer  on  a  cotton 
farm  in  1873  and  in  1893  does  not  exceed  $15.  I  do  not  be- 
lieve that  it  amounts  to  that,  but  I  desire  to  bo  fair,  and  I  will 
assume  that  is  $1;").  That  outfit,  on  an  average,  with  some  re- 
pairs, will  last  three  years.  So  that,  whilst  there  has  been 
this  great  reduction  in  the  prices  of  his  crops,  as  to  his  agi-i- 
cultural  implements  he  has  only  saved  $")  ;innually.  That  is  a 
very  inappreciable  saving  to  the  farmer  as  compared  to  his 
loss  in  the  fall  in  price  of  cotton.  In  no  other  way  has  there 
been  the  slightest  decrease  in  the  cost  of  raising  cotton.  On 
the  contrary,  in  all  that  part  of  our  country  east  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi River,  except  in  a  very  few  favored  localities,  such  as 
the  Yazoo  Delta,  the  long  use  of  the  land  in  the  production  of 
cotton  has  caused  a  necessity  for  the  purchase  of  commercial  fer- 
tilizers. I  do  not  use  these  fertilizers  myself,  though  I  have 
some  information  upon  the  subject.  The  cost  is  about  $3  per 
acre.  The  use  of  these  fertilizei-s.  however — I  want  that  under- 
stood—does  not  goto  the  extent  of  increising  the  general  fer- 
tility of  the  land,  but  simply  to  prevent  deterioration.  So  that 
in  the  case  of  use  of  fertilizers  nearly  the  whole  savingof  reduc- 
tion in  the  cost  of  agricultural  implements  is  swept  away. 

To  sum  up:  Five  bales  of  cotton  in  187."!  would  yield  $470  an- 
nually; in  1891,  1892,  and  1893,  it  would  yield  $18f.  Balance  in 
favor  of  1873,  after  giving  credit  for  the  decrease  in  the  cost  of 
agricultural  implements,  $288,  as  against  a  total  production  of 
$182 — more  than  $100  dift'erence  in  favor  of  1873  over  the  produc- 
tion of  1893, 

There  are  other  things  to  be  considered.  The  farmers'  taxes 
have  not  decreased.  On  a  farm  of  80  acres  capable  of  ]iroducing 
one-half  of  a  bale  to  the  acre — and  it  is  necessary  that  it  should 
produce  th  it  in  order  that  one  man  may  raise  five  bales,  and  that 
is  very  fine  land,  as  the  present  oc(".up:int  of  the  chair  [Mr.  JoNES 
of  Arkansas!  knows — worth  $1,000.  the  lowest  tax  that  I  am  ac- 
quainted with,  taking  the  tax  of  the  State,  countj',  school,  and 
all  that  sort  of  thing,  is  15  mills.  There  has  been  no  decrease. 
It  strands  ex  K'tly  to-day  as  it  did  then. 

What  other  decreases  are  there?  The  intelligent  and  able  Sen- 
ator from  Texas,  who  comes  from  a  cotton  State,  and  who,  I  sup- 
pose, has  given  some  attention  to  this  matter,  has  been  kind 
enough  to  furnish  me  with  the  proof  sheets  of  his  tables,  for 
which  I  am  very  much  obliged.  As  he  states  it.  there  have  been 
some  re.luctions  in  the  cost  of  the  necessaries  which  the  farmer 
buys.  Recollect — and  I  hope  nobody  will  forget  that— that  the 
farmer  has,  in  1892  and  1893,  but  $182  for  hin;self.  his  wife,  and, 
I  will  say,  two  children,  to  invest  in  coiciforts  and  necessaries 
not  raised  on  the  farm.  Let  us  bear  that  in  mind,  lie  has  not 
that  much  after  he  pays  his  taxes  and  after  he  pays,  as  unfor- 
486 


46 

tunately  is  common  in  our  section  of  the  country,  a  small  bill 
for  doctor's  services,  and  things  of  th:it  sort.  But  leave  out  all 
that  and  grive  him  $lS:i. 

Tea  in  1873  was  worth  95  cents.  In  189U  it  is  worth  25,  a  fall 
of  Tii  per  cent.  ITow  many  pounds  of  tea  will  a  man  buy  for  the 
use  of  himself,  wife,  and  two  children  having  an  income  of  $182? 
Prob:ibly  a  couple  of  pounds.  So  that,  as  comjiensntion  for  los- 
ing the  dift'ercnc('  between  $')-!  and  $;3G,  which  is  nearly  $G0,  on 
a  bale  of  his  cotton,  he  gets  about  50  cents  reduction  in  the  price 
of  tea. 

But  that  is  not  all.  Take  his  coffee.  I  want  you  to  bear  in 
mind  that  a  man  who  has  an  income  of  $182  does  not  use  a  great 
deal  of  coffee.     He  can  not,  however  much  he  may  desire. 

Mr.  PEFFER.    Less  than  50  cents  a  day  is  his  income. 

Mr.  GEORGE.  Less  than  50  cents  a  day.  He  will  probably 
buy  10  pounds  of  coffee  during  the  year.  Thus  lie  is  to  be  com- 
pensated by  a  saving  of  $1  in  the  purchase  of  his  coffee  for  a 
loss  of  $G0  on  a  bale  of  cotton.     You  may  add  in  the  tea,  too. 

Now,  we  will  come  to  drillings  and  sheetings.  It  is  said  that 
the  percentage  of  saving  was  48  in  one  case  and  55  in  the  other; 
and  so  on.  His  whole  purchase  of  these  things  and  other  like 
goods  will  ijrobably  be  confined  to  $100.  Suppose  he  saves  $50  on 
these  articles.  Then  ho  saves  less  on  his  whole  purchases  than 
he  loses  on  one  bale  of  cotton. 

And  yet  the  Senator  from  Texas,  representing  a  cotton  con- 
stituency, argued  very  gravely  before  the  Senate  that  after  all 
cotton  at  6  cents  a  pound,  its  present  price,  is  not  such  a  terri- 
ble thing  to  the  Southern  farmer,  because  he  can  save  50  cents 
on  his  tea,  $1  on  his  coffee,  $10  on  his  sheetings,  and  probably 
$100  on  all  of  his  purchases  out  of  the  store.  This  is  the  way 
that  stands. 

So.  Mr.  President,  if  we  put  the  farmer  in  this  condition— 
which  I  hope  he  will  not  be  in  long,  though  he  is  in  that  position 
now — that  he  is  to  use  his  whole  exertion  for  the  purpose  of  get- 
ting a  bare  subsistence,  and  has  no  prospect  of  ever  bettei'ing 
his  fortune,  we  find  that  he  gets,  unfortunately,  less  for  his 
labor  in  1893  in  the  way  of  supplies,  comforts,  and  necessaries 
than  he  did  in  1873:  and  he  is  in  fact  reduced  to  the  condition 
stated  by  the  writer  from  whom  I  have  quoted — to  be  working 
on  his  own  farm  for  mere  laborer's  wages  without  a  cent  of  com- 
pensation for  the  rent  of  his  land.  I  want  Senators  to  under- 
stand that.  I  have  not  overdrawn  thig  pictui'e.  I  am  not  talk- 
ing about  wheat  farmers,  or  tobacco  farmers,  because  I  know 
nothing  about  them.  I  am  talking  about  cotton  farmers.  The 
Senator  who  sits  by  my  side  here  [Mr.  Bate],  a  cotton- raiser, 
can  testify  that  I  have  made  a  liberal  estimate  for  the  produc- 
tion of  a  single  farmer  by  his  own  labor,  giving  him  5  bales  to 
the  hand. 

Mr.  BATE.     Five  and  a  half  bales  to  the  hand. 

Mr.  GEORGE.  But,  Mr.  President,  there  is  a  very  great  mis- 
take in  thetables  presented  by  the  Senator  from  Texas.  Idonot 
know  who  furnished  him  those  figures,  but  I  do  know,  as  every 
Senator  within  the  sound  of  my  voice  and  who  comes  from  a,  cotton 
State  knows,  that  the  figures  for  1891,  where  he  put  theavoi'age 
price  of  cotton  at  10  cents,  are  not  correct.  The  occupant  of  the 
chair  [Mr.  .TONES  of  Arkansas]  smiles,  and  so  do  his  colleague  and 
the  Senator  from  Texas;  and  so  does  the  cotton  planter  who  sits 
486 


47 

at  my  left  [Mr.  Bate]  smilo.  I  would  smile  too,  Mr.  President, 
if,  I  did  not  have  some  cuiso  to  weep  on  account  of  tlii  low  price. 

Mr.  PASCO.  I  should  like  to  ask  the  Senator  from  what  mar- 
ket report  that  quotation  is  taken? 

Mr.  GEORGE.  It  was  only  furnished  to  me  this  morning  by 
the  Senator  from  Texas.  There  is  no  statement  of  the  particu- 
lar market;  it  is  merely  a  statement  of  prices. 

Mr.  PASCO.  It  certainly  is  not  correctso  far  asour  part  of  the 
country  is  concerned. 

Mr.  GEORGE.  It  gives  the  prices  of  certain  products  from 
1873  to  1891.  I  have  a  statement  here,  which  was  read  by  my 
colleague  [Mr.  Walthall]  the  other  day,  and  which  put  the 
price  of  cotton,  I  will  not  say  at  a  more  reasonable  rate,  but  at  a 
truer  rate.  The  price  state^d  in  that  table  was  7  cents  for  1891, 
but  there  is  not  a  cotton  farmer  within  the  sound  of  my  voice  who 
does  not  know  that  for  the  crop  of  1891  the  farmer  did  not,  on  an 
average,  receive  7  cents  net. 

Of  course,  I  do  not  count  the  New  York  price  or  the  New  Or- 
leans price;  we  count  the  price  at  the  home  market,  at  the  near- 
est railroad  depot;  and  then,  too,  we  count  the  average  price  of 
the  whole  crop,  including  the  meanest  cotton,  which  every  Sen- 
ator here  from  the  cotton  States  knows  is  not  worth  much  over 
half  of  the  price  of  the  best  cotton.  As  to  the  other  figures  con- 
tained in  the  table  of  the  Senator  from  Texas  I  know  nothing. 
I  can  only  say  that  as  to  the  one  which  is  prominent  and  recent 
in  our  recollection,  the  mistake  is  so  great  as  to  bring  discredit 
on  the  whole  table. 

Now,  we  begin  to  see  how  much  compensation  the  farmer  de- 
rives from  the  low  prices  of  the  things  he  buys  for  the  loss  he 
sustains  in  the  fall  in  prices  of  the  things  which  he  raises.  It 
is  utterly  worthless,  it  is  really  no  compensation.  He  is  placed 
in  the  position,  as  stated  by  this  writer,  of  being  a  mere  laborer 
upon  his  own  farm,  without  any  compensation  for  the  rent. 

TALI-ING  PRICES  KEEP  THE  FAIJMER  IN  DEBT. 

There  are  some  other  things  to  which  I  desire  to  call  the  at- 
tention of  the  Senate  which  do  not  fall  in  price,  and  which,  un- 
fortunately, the  farmer  has  to  pay.  I  may  state  this  fact— and  I 
presume  without  fear  of  contradiction — as  an  economic  fact  that 
the  constant  falling  of  prices  on  the  part  of  agricultural  products 
is  always  followed  by  a  constantly  increasing  debt,  almost  neces- 
sarily, for,  as  the  fai'mer's  income  at  the  best  is  a  small  one,  and 
he  is  apt  to  purchase  with  reference  to  the  fair  and  liberal  price, 
which  he  hopes  for  all  through  the  year,  when  there  is  a  constant 
fall  in  the  price  of  his  crop  he  is  brought  in  debt. 

So,  according  to  the  lluui'cs  which  I  read  the  other  day,  there  is 
now  nearly  $G,UOO,OOU,odo  of  debt  in  mortgages  of  real  estate  in 
this  country.  How  much  of  that  is  on  agricultural  land,  and 
how  much  on  town  land,  I  am  unable  to  say;  but  every  Senator 
from  an  agricultural  community  knows  that  a  very  large  propor- 
tion of  it  is  on  agricultural  property. 

Mr.  PIOFJ-M-^R.    a^vo-thirds  of  it. 

Mr.  GEORGE.  The  Senator  from  Kansas  says  two-thirds.  I 
am  satisfied  it  is  oven  more  than  that.  With  his  $182  income  and 
with  a.  small  debt  even  of  two  hundred  dollars — there  is  no  de- 
crease in  Ihat,  for  it  has  to  be  paid  dollar  for  dollar — with  the  con- 
stantly falling  prices  the  farmer  year  by  year  is  getting  inex- 
tricably lodged  in  deep  debt;  and  I  am  astonished,  not  so  much 

486 


48 

at  my  friend  from  Delaware  [Mr.  Gray],  who  lives  in  a  city  and 
who  does  not  represent  a  very  large  agricultural  interest,  as  1 
am  astonished  that  any  Senator  represeutiuj^  a  cotton  Stats 
should  argue  gravely  before  the  Araeric m  Senate  that  the  fall 
in  the  prices  of  the  articles  which  the  farmer  buys  is  any  com- 
pensation whatever  for  the  immense  fall  in  the  price  of  the 
things  which  he  sells. 

Mr.  FRYE.  Will  it  disturb  the  Senator  to  give  me  a  bit  of 
information? 

Mr.  GEORGE.  Not  at  all.  Any  information  I  have  I  will 
give  to  the  Senator. 

Mr.  FRYE.  I  understand  the  Senator  to  s.iy  that  a  bale  of 
cotton  to  the  acre  is  all  that  it  will  average? 

Mr.  GEORGE.  It  will  not  average  that  much.  The  average 
is  half  a  bale  to  the  acre. 

Mr.  FRYE.  And  that  the  farmer  can  not  raise  over  five 
bales?    That  would  be  cultivating  10  acres. 

Mr.  GEORGE.    Yes. 

Mr.  FRYE.  Does  the  Senator  mean  that  the  farmer's  entire 
time  is  taken  on  10  acres  of  land? 

Mr.  GEORGE.  I  will  explain  it.  I  mean  to  say  that  15  acres 
of  land  in  corn  and  cotton,  that  is  the  usual  crop,  10  in  cotton  and 
5  in  corn,  and  perhaps  2  or  3  in  oats,  is  regarded  as  a  full  crop  for 
any  one  man  to  raise. 

Mr.  FRYE.  I  suppose  that  in  cert;\in  seasons  the  farmer 
needs  more  hands,  in  cotton-picking  times,  for  instance,  and 
things  of  that  kind,  as  we  do  in  the  North  in  hay.  If  the 
farmer  had  100  acres,  does  the  Senator  mean  that  it  would  take 
one  mtm  for  each  of  the  15  of  the  100  acres  to  profitably  cultivate 
them? 

Mr.  GEORGE.    I  do. 

Mr.  FRYE.  So  that  really  the  limit  of  the  ability  of  one  man 
in  raising  cotton  is  five  or  five  and  a  half  bales? 

Mr.  GEORGE.  That  is  the  full  average.  I  will  state  to  the 
Senator  that  some  men  of  extraordinary  industry  and  energy, 
and  with  land  of  extraordinary  fertility,  will  do  more. 

Mr.  FRYE.  If  the  Sen  t  tor  will  pardon  me  one  moment  longer, 
what  did  I  understand  him  to  say  the  average  value  per  acre  of 
the  land  to  be,  of  which  he  is  speaking? 

Mr.  GEORGE.  I  would  say  that  a  farm  of  80  acres,  with  a 
good  dwelling  house  on  it  and  outhouses. that  would  produce  a  half 
br.le  of  cotton  to  the  acre  would  be  worth  $S00  to  $1,000.  I  doubt 
whether  it  could  be  sold  for  that;  but  if  a  man  was  out  of  debt 
he  probably  would  not  t;ike  that  for  such  a  farm. 

Mr.  FRYE.  One  question  further.  Is  the  cotton  ci'op  taken 
at  the  farm  bv  purchasers? 

Mr.  GEORGE.  No,  sir.  In  the  South  the  farmer  usually 
hauls  his  cotton  to  the  nearest  market  town  on  a  navigable  river 
or  the  nearest  railroad  town  and  disposes  of  it  there. 

Mr.  FRYE.    And  there  he  gets  his  price? 

Mr.  GEORGE.    Yes. 

Mr.  FRYE.    Then  it  centralizes  somewhere  else? 

Mr.  GEORGE.  Yes.  A  few  large  planters  in  Mississippi,  I 
will  state  to  the  Senator  from  Maine,  ship  their  cotton  to  New 
Orleans,  Mobile,  or  Memphis,  and  it  is  there  sold  by  a  cotton 
factor.    After  charging  the  planter  with  all  the  expenses  of  the 

48S 


49 

freight,  commissions,  and  everything  of  that  sort,  the  factor  re- 
turns him  what  we  c;ill  the  net  proceeds. 

Mr.  FRYE.  If  the  Senator  will  p^i'don  me  one  moment  fur- 
ther, there  is  one  other  thing  1  should  like  to  know. 

Mr.  GEORGE.  I  will  answer  very  cheerfully  any  question  I 
can. 

Mr.  FRYE.  I  understand  that  in  the  South  the  owners  of  cot- 
ton land  let  it  out  on  halves  or  iij  some  other  way.  Will  the 
Senator  kindly  tell  me  how  many  acres  are  ordinarily  let  to  one 
man,  and  what  the  general  arrangement  may  be  as  to  the  pay 
for  it? 

Mr.  GEORGE.  I  do  not  know  that  I  can  state  the  general 
arrangement.  My  own  experience  of  that  matter  is  confined  to 
the  Yazoo  Delta.  1 1  is  considered  there  as  a  very  fair  arrangement 
for  the  owner  of  the  land  to  furnish  the  team,  the  plows,  and  the 
land,  and  to  pay  the  expenses  of  keei)ing  up  the  land,  repairing 
the  houses,  fences,  and  all  that  sort  of  thing,  and  divide  the  net 
proceeds  with  the  man  who  rents. 

Mr.  FRYE.    Divide  the  net  proceeds? 

Mr.  GEORGE.  I  used  the  word  "  net"  wrongly  there.  I  did 
not  mean  after  the  planter  has  been  reimbursed  for  his  team,  and 
all  that.  I  ought  to  have  said  "'  gross  proceeds,"  because  those 
things  are  not  chai'ged  to  the  laborer. 

Mc.  FRYE.     Ordinarily  does  a  man  hire  only  15  acres? 

Mr.  GEORGE.     That  is  about  the  usual  amount. 

Mr.  FRYE.    I  am  obliged  to  the  Senator  for  the  information. 

Mr.  CALL.     An  allowance  is  made  for  a  garden. 

Mr.  GEORGE.  Gardens,  potato  patches,  and  things  of  that 
sort  are  never  charged  for.  That  is  about  the  way  the  business 
is  conducted.  In  the  poor  land  districts,  in  the  hills,  I  suppose 
that  the  acreage  would  be  larger,  but  the  proceeds  would  be 
less. 

I  think  I  have  said  enough  on  this  subject,  and  I  shall  now, 
lest  it  may  be  supposed  that  I  have  overdrawn  this  picture,  read 
sbme  resolutions  passed  by  the  farmers  in  Jefferson  County, 
Mississippi.    They  are  as  follows: 

Whereas  the  financial  condition  of  our  country  at  preseut  la  most  deplor- 
able and  has  been  brought  about,  in  our  opinion,  chiefly  by  the  demonetiza- 
tion of  silver,  striking  down  half  of  the  hard  money  of  the  country  and  vastly 
increasing  the  burdens  of  the  debtor  classes, inspired  by  the  greed  of  English 
financiers  and  assisted  by  unpatriotic,  undemocratic,  and  avaricious  Ameri- 
cans, the  effect  of  which  has  been,  and  still  is,  to  rob  the  American  farmer 
out  of  millions  each  year:  and 

Whereas  we  know  the  Sherman  act  of  1890  to  be  in  no  wise  responsible  for 
the  present  financial  difflcuUies,  and  that  any  law  that  has  added  $US,CS0,22I 
to  the  volume  of  oiir  currency  could  not  have  been  otherwise  than  benefi- 
cent in  its  effect: 

Eesolved,  We  demand  that  our  representatives  in  Congress  cling  tena- 
ciously to  the  Sherman  act  of  1890  and  steadily  vote  against  the  repeal  of 
same,  unless  a  free-coinage  act  at  a  ratio  of  10  to  1  be  embodied  in  the  same 
bill,  thus  restoring  to  us  the  money  that  the  founders  of  our  Government 
established  as  the  one  most  sruted  to  our  wants,  and  which  for  ninety  years 
of  our  history  enabled  us  to  enjoy  that  meed  of  prosperity  which  made  our 
cotmtry  the  wonder  of  the  world! 

WM.  D.  TORIiEY,  Chairman. 
JAS.  McCLUN,  Secretary. 

The  resolutions  are  in  manuscript.    They  are  drawn  up  by  the 

farmers  themselves,  prompted  thereto  by  their  own  feelings  and 

their  own  wants — not  gotten  up  on  printed  foi-ms  sent  out  by 

banks  and  other  capitalists  and  engineered  by  their  agents,  who 

486 i 


50 

are  sometimes  their  dupes  and  sometimes  their  fellow-con- 
spirators. 

Oh.  but  it  will  be  said  in  the  contemptuous  spirit  so  charac- 
teristic of  those  who  are  enriched  by  the  present  financial  sys- 
tem, that  this  comes  from  ''calamity  howlers." 

So  did  the  agents  and  assistants  of  Torquemada,  as  the  vic- 
tims writhed  and  cried  under  the  tortures  of  the  inquisition,  de- 
nominate them  as  "calamity  howlers." 

The  meetino:  that  passed  these  resolutions  was  composed  of 
hundreds  of  men  in  one  of  the  most  intellifiront  and  productive 
counties  in  Mississippi.    Is  their  cry  to  be  unheeded":* 

I  fear  so.  And  yet  I  venture  to  say  if  the  bankers  of  New 
York  were  to  pass  similar  I'esolutions  demanding  the  free  coin- 
age of  silver  their  demand  would  ba  gi-anted  as  quickly  as  the 
ordinary  forms  of  legislation  would  allow.  I  do  not  mean  to 
say — no,  not  by  any  mea;is — that  Senators  or  Congressmen  are 
owned  or  consciously  controlled  by  the  banks,  but  I  do  mean  to 
say  that  such  is  the  influence  of  men  possessing  the  wealth  of 
the  world  and  supposed  to  be  skilled  in  finance,  that  in  a  matter 
stated  by  the  Senator  from  Massachusetts  to  surpass  in  difficulty 
the  subleties  of  metaphysics,  the  hair-splitting  distinctions  and 
profound  speculations  and  logical  puzzles  of  technical  lawyers 
and  of  disputatious  schoolmen  and  theologians,  the  human  mind 
is  apt  to  defer  tothosowho  are  supposed  to  be  experts,  especially 
if  they  have  shown  an  expertness  in  finance  by  getting  rich. 

TRUST  THE  COilMON  SENSE  OF  THE  PEOPLE. 

But,  sir,  I  had  rather  trust  to  the  common  sense  of  the  Ameri- 
can people, as  to  their  wants  and  their  distresses.than  to  the  expert 
knowledge  of  those  who  have  antagonistic  interests  to  them. 
To  say  we  can  not  trust  the  common,  average  sense  of  the  Ameri- 
can people,  in  a  matter  of  government  so  essential  to  their  wel- 
fare as  this,  is  to  assert  that  the  people  are  incapable  of  self- 
government.  The  plain  provision  of  the  Constitution  recognizing 
as  money  for  coinage  in  the  mint  that  which  has  been  recognized 
as  such  from  the  earliest  period  of  human  history  is  easily  com- 
prehended. The  mystery  of  finance,  so  far  as  it  rests  on  the  recog- 
nition and  coinage  of  the  two  precious  metals,  is  easily  under- 
stood. It  is  only  when  we  depart  from  this  and  enter  into  the 
mazes  of  ingenious  speculation,  contrived  to  make  that  appear 
as  money  which  is  not  money  but  a  sham  and  a  trick,  and  to 
make  that  appear  not  to  be  money  which  is  money,  that  we 
encounter  the  difficulties  suggested  by  the  Senator  from  Massa- 
chusetts. 

These  so-called  expert  bankers  and  capitalists  are  experts  only 
in  contriving  devices  by  which  the  wealth  of  the  world  shall 
accumulate  in  their  hands.  Statesmanship  dealing  with  a  finan- 
cial system  for  the  country  is  the  opposite  of  this.  It  is  provid- 
ing, as  far  as  human  foresight  can  provide,  that  money,  denomi- 
nated by  the  Senator  from  Massachusetts  as  the  lifeblood  of 
trade,  shall  be  sufficient  in  volume  to  circulate  freely  among  all 
the  people  and  not  be  congested  in  the  great  centers  of  trade 
and  controlled,  absolutely  controlled,  by  a  few  who  have  grown 
overrich. 

WANTS  OF  THE  FARMER. 

But,  sir,  I  go  back  to  the  point  of  the  wants  of  the  American 
farmers,  for  an  increased  coinage,  and  the  ability  of  that  want, 

486 


51 

with  othei's,  to  keep  silver  at  a  parity  with  g'old.  The  farmers, 
at  present,  alone  need  a  billion  and  more  of  money  annually  to 
carry  on  tlieir  business  on  the  economical  and  profitable  cash 
system,  rather  than  on  a  ruinous  credit.  They  must  in  the  main 
keep  their  money  so  as  to  expend  it  in  eight  or  ten  months,  from 
the  end  of  one  harvest  to  the  beginning  of  another.  That  money 
will  not  be  hoarded,  as  a  miser  hoards  his  gold,  with  the  view 
of  gloating  over  it  in  the  secret  places  in  which  it  has  been  hid, 
nor  as  the  capitalist  hoards  his,  when  in  p;inics  he  saves  his 
money  for  investment  when  prices  shall  fall  lower  and  lower. 
The  farmer  does  not  want  it  deposited  in  a  bank,  which  if  the 
storm  comes  will  refuse  to  return  it  to  him  when  he  most  needs 
it.  He  wants  it  for  constant  use  or  for  some  investment  to  bs 
made  when  a  favorable  opportunity  oCfers.  He  keeps  no  bank 
account.  Possiblj'  there  is  not  a  bank  in  his  county  or  for  several 
counties  around  him. 

At  all  events,  he  knows  his  money  is  safe  in  his  own  hands. 
He  doubts  its  safety  with  the  banks,  especially  when  he  knows 
the  banks  have  demand  obligations,  payable  at  any  moment,  to 
an  amount  from  six  to  ten  times  as  great  as  they'havc  cash  to 
meet  them.  Then,  sir,  he  looks  at  the  laws  of  his  counti'y,  and 
finds  that  the  national  banks  are  not  allowed  to  lend  one  dollar 
on  the  only  security  which  he  can  oiler— on  real  estate.  So,  sir, 
he  must  layby  money,  or  submit  to  the  ruinous  credit  system  I 
have  described. 

We.  sir,  his  servants— not  his  masters — his  agents  appointed 
to  do  the  work  needful  to  his  happiness  and  prosperity — we,  in- 
stead of  responding  to  his  calls,  made  in  no  equivocal  terms, 
instead  of  giving  him  the  opportunity  of  advancement  and  pros- 
perity, deliberately  (not  intentionally,  I  admit)  provide  for  his 
destruction.  Instead  of  giving  him,  as  the  Democratic  platform 
of  1884:  denominated  it,  gold  and  silver,  the  money  of  the  Consti- 
tution, we  desti^oy  half  of  this  constitutional  monej%  whereby, 
with  depressed  prices  for  his  products,  with  largely  enhanced 
prices,  through  the  credit  system  and  through  the  protective 
tariff  system,  for  the  things  he  must  buy,  the  farmer  must  for- 
ever tread  the  dreary  path  of  penury  and  despair. 

Now,  Mr.  President,  if  we  give  the  country  free  coinage  the 
farmers  alone,  with  the  necessary  money  they  must  keep  to 
carry  on  their  business,  will  consume  more  than  one-half  the 
addition  free  coinage  will  make  to  the  currency. 

The  laborers  will  consume  much  of  the  other  half.  Do  not  they 
need  an  increase  in  the  currency?  Oh.  no,  it  is  claimed  that 
their  wages  will  bo  lessened  by  payment  in  a  depreciated  cur- 
rency, as  if  the  present  wages  of  laborers  were  the  voluntary 
gift,  the  philanthropic  provision  made  by  capitalists  for  those 
who  had  made  them  over-rich  instead  of  being  extorted  from 
them  by  the  firm  demand  of  associated  labor.  This  argument 
rests  upon  the  i^rcsumed  ignorance  of  labor  of  its  rights. 

HOW  THE  LABORER'S  WAGES  ARE  AFFECTED. 

Thank  Heaven,  sir,  this  presumption  is  unfounded.  Whatever 
may  have  been  the  fact  in  the  past,  the  laborer  now  knows  his 
rights  as  to  his  wages,  and  knowing  them,  ho,  by  such  associated 
efforts  as  are  needed,  asserts  them.  But,  sir,  is  the  present 
system  of  demonetized  silver  the  heaven  of  the  laborer?  Whilst 
gold  must  bo  the  standard,  as  the  antisilver  men  assert— whilst 
gold  must  be  more,  the  only  money,  or  the  foundation  of  all  sub- 

486 


52 


stitutes  for  real  money— has  the  laborer  in  the  past  or  does  he 
now  receive  his  wages  in  gold  or  its  equivalent? 

I  wish  to  j-ead  an  extract  fi-om  a  letter  addressed  by  Mr.  Pow- 
derly  to  the  American  Congress;  which  is  as  follows: 

In  every  State  of  the  American  Union  where  mining  or  manufacturing  Is 
carried  ou  workingmen  are  obliged  to  trade  in  company  stores  because  of 
the  scarcity  of  money.  The  "barter  and  trade  system  "of  barbaric  ages 
finds  its  counterpart  in  liuudreds  of  mining  towns,  where  the  brass  check, 
the  shinplastor.  and  the  store  order  compel  workmen  to  barter  labor  for 
food.  Wore  money  plenty  this  condition  of  affairs  would  not  exist  as  it  does 
exist  to-day. 

I  produce  now  a  book  containing  facsimiles  of  the  devices 
spoken  of,  and  I  will  read  from  it.  It  is  the  annual  report  of 
the  secretary  of  internal  affairs  for  the  State  of  Pennsylvania 
for  187S-'79.  There  are  about  one  dozen  different  kinds  of  shin- 
plasters  given  in  it.  I  will  read  the  language  of  a  few  specimens, 
and  insert  more  in  my  remarks,  so  that  Senators  who  think  that 
the  laborers  are  enjoying  a  heaven  under  the  present  system 
may  know  something  about  how  the  laborers  in  this  country 
are  p.'iid.  Here  is  the  facsimile  of  a  shinplaster  which  reads  in 
this  way: 

THE  KIND  OF    "HONEST"   MONEY  PAID  TO   THE  LABORER. 


10 


15 


20 


25 


30 


35 


40 


45 


This  ticket  is  issued  by  the 

PINE  RUN  COAL.  COMPANY, 

On  account  of  the  scarcity  of  small  change,  and  is  redeemable 
at  their  store  in  merchandise. 

THE  CHECK  IS  GOOD  FOR  THE 

Amount  of  the  figures  (in  cents)  opposite  the  punch  mark. 

TWO  HOLES  IN  A  CHECK  RENDERS  IT  WORTHLESS. 


50  55  60  65  70  75  80  85 

That  is  the  statement  of  one.    Then  here  on  page  366  is  an- 
other: 

No. .  McClure  Station,  Pa., ,  18—. 

PAINTER  MINE  STORE. 

Not  transferable.  $1. 

Let have  merchandise  to  the  amount  not  punched. 


Good  when  signed  by  S.  B.  White. 


Then  another: 

Good  for  all  amounts  unpunched. 

Payable  on  demand.  81. 

In  merchandise  at  the  store  of .    Not  transferable. 

H.  C.  Frick  &  Co.,  Valley  Mines.  Pa. 

Date. ,  —80. 

To . 

No. .    For  use  of . 

And  the  proof  shows  that  the  insertion  of  the  words  "not 
transferable"'  was  a  mere  trick  for  the  purpose  of  evading  the 
tax  of  10  per  cent.  They  are  nearly  all  marked  "not  transfer- 
able." 

The  scrip  Is  marked— 
says  the  correspondent — 

'not  tran.sferable."  yet  they  u.se  it  the  same  as  money  here,  the  parties  tak- 
ing it,  however,  instead  of  money  do  so  at  a  shave  of  from  30  to  40  per  cent 
ISA 


53 

Anybody  can  purchase  with  them  the  same  as  the  party  to  whom  they  are  Is- 
sued, and  I  see  them  \ised  here  in  hotels,  saloons,  eating  houses,  etc.,  every 
week. 

Then  there  is  another  on  page  367,  which  is  as  follows: 

Good  for  all  amounts  not  unpunched. 

J5. 

Payable  on  demand. 

In  merchandise  at  the  store  of .    Not  transferable. 

Webster  Coal  Co.,  Webster,  Pa. 

To . 

Signed . 


No.—.  Issued 

There  is  another  one  on  page  368: 

No.  — .  Not  transferable.  Sold  to  ■ 

This  check  is  goort  (until  punched)  for 

One  dollar, 

In  goods  III  the  store  of 

Brown  &  Co., 

Mount  Vernon,  Payette  Co., 

If  properly  countersigned. 

Coimtersigned. 


$1.00  (One)  187— 

Then  there  is  another  on  the  same  page: 

DUNBAR  FURNACE  STORE. 

•   Good  for In  merchandise  at  my  store. 

J.  M.  HUSTEAD. 
«1.  Per . 

Then  here  is  one  that  is  up  to  the  dignity  of  fine  engraving. 
It  looks  a  good  deal  like  a  bank  note: 

ENTERPRISE  COAL  WORKS. 

10  cents.  10  cents. 

Store 

Pay  to  Bearer 

10  cents 

In  Merchandise, 

and  charge  to 

Banksville,  Pa., ,  18—. 

Then  there  is  another  on  page  370: 

Good  for  all  amounts  unpunched. 

Payable  on  demand 

In  merchandise 

At  the  store  of  SI. 

Sharon  Iron  Works,  Sharon,  Pa. 

To or  order. 

Signed  WESTERMAN  IRON  CO. 

No.  — .       Issued ,  18—. 

Then  here  is  another  with  a  picture  of  the  father  of  the  coun- 
try on  it: 

25  25 

No.  — . 

California,  Pa., ,  18—. 

J.  G.  Gleason, 

The  storekeeper 

Will  pay  to  the  bearer  iu  merchandise 

Twenty-live  cents. 

Signed  JOS.  COATS  WORTH  &  CO. 

25  25 

And  still  another  on  the  same  page: 

Good  for  all  amoimts  unpunched 

J5. 

Payable  on  demand, 

In  merchandise  at  the  Htore  of 

W.  B.  Enos  &  Co.,  Wampum,  Pa., 

To or  order. 

Signed  . 

No.  — .       Issued ,  18—. 


54 

And  also  on  page  372  is  another  one: 

6,  This  will  bo  received 

As  equivalent  to 

Five  cents. 

In  exchange  for  merchandise  at  the  store  of 

L.  S.  Hoyt. 

Clinton  Station,  Pa.,  — ,  18—. 

Also  one  on  page  373: 

25  This  will  be  received 

As  equivalent  to 

Tweuty-flve  cents 

In  exchange  for  merchandise  at  the  store  ol 

L.  S.  Hoyt. 

Clinton  Station,  Pa., ,  18—. 

And  another  one  on  page  375: 

10  A  No.  — 

"William  Sharpe  &  Co., 

of  Dubois,  Pa., 

Will  pay  the  bearer  on  demand 

Ten  cents. 

In  merchandise. 

Mr.  GRAY.    Mr.  President 

The  PRESIDING  OFFICER  (Mr.  JONES  of  Arkansas  in  the 
chair).  Does  the  Senator  from  Mississippi  yield  to  the  Senator 
ii'om  Delaware? 

Mr.  GEORGE.    Certainly. 

Mr.  GRAY.  I  should  like  to  say  to  the  Senator  from  Missis- 
sippi in  this  connection  that  so  far  as  those  Pennsylvania  pluck- 
me-storo  orders — as  they  came  to  be  called  in  the  common  par- 
lance of  that  State  and  neighboring  States — are  concerned,  I 
think  I  know  the  fact  that  their  issuance  and  use  was  not  due  in 
any  degree  to  scarcity  of  money.  They  were  a  part  of  a  system 
of  oppi'ession,  I  grant,  and  grew  out  of  the  greed  of  some  of  those 
great  coal-mining  corporations  thatendeavoi*ed  to  make  a  profit  at 
both  ends,  and  by  the  peculiar  situation  in  which  they  found  them- 
selves in  relation  to  their  workingmen  the  former  were  enabled 
to  compel  an  acceptance  of  the  pluck-me-store  orders  as  a  part 
of  their  pay,  which  were  redeemable  at  the  company's  stores, 
and  where  it  was  charged  the  corporations  made  an  enormous 
profit  upon  the  goods  in  which  they  were  redeemed.  I  have  had 
some  familiarity  with  this  state  of  things,  and  it  went  to  such  a 
pass  that  I  believe  the  State  of  Pennsylvania  enacted  alaw  which, 
in  a  large  measure,  broke  up  that  mode  of  paying  wages. 

Mr.  GEORGE.  I  have  no  doubt  that  there  is  a  good  deal  of 
truth  in  what  the  Senator  from  Delaware  says,  but  still  it  is  a 
good  answer  to  the  argument  made  by  the  Senator  himself  that 
the  laborer  was  interested  in  having  the  gold  standard  in  order 
that  ho  might  have  an  honest  dollar  for  his  wages.  I  want  to 
show  what  kind  of  an  honest  dollar  is  used  for  the  purpose  of 
paying  the  wages  of  the  laborers  of  this  country,  showing  that 
however  honest,  and  good,  and  glorious  the  gold  dollar  might  be 
as  between  the  capitalists  and  bankers,  when  we  come  down  to 
the  laborer,  in  whose  behalf  the  plea  is  made,  they  did  not  circu- 
ate. 

Now,  Mr.  President.it  does  nothappen  in  Pennsylvania  alone 
I  have  some  more  of  these.  Here  is  one  of  them  from  Tennes- 
see: 

Good  only  at  East  Tennessee  Company's  store. 

Fifty  cents  for  all  amoimts  due. 
486 


55 

I  was  instructed  not  to  read  out  the  name  of  tho  man  to  whom 
the  ticket  was  given,  as  he  might  suffer  for  it.  I  will  call  him 
Richard  Roe,  though  my  friend  from  Delaware  may  see  it  if  he 
wants. 

Due  Richard  Roe  or  bearer  In  merchandise,  50  cents. 

Mr.  GRAY.    Payable  in  merchandise. 

Mr.  GEORGE.  Oh,  yes;  they  are  all  payable  in  merchandise. 
Here  is  another  from  the  State  of  Kentucky: 

Beaver  Creek  Cumberland  River  Storekeeper. 
Pay  10  cents  to  bearer  in  merchandise. 

They  were  not  afraid  of  the  tax  over  there,  and  they  did  not 
put  in  the  words  "not  transferable." 

Redeemable  at  tho  store  of  Beaver  Creek  Cumberland  River  Coal  Company 
in  merchandise. 

That  is  the  honest  dollar  that  my  friend  from  Delaware  pleaded 
so  hard  should  be  paid  to  the  laborers  of  this  country. 

Mr.  GRAY.     Oh,  no;  that  is  not  it. 

Mr.  GEORGE.  The  Senator  was  not  talking  about  that  kind 
of  a  dollar.  He  was  talking  about  the  gold  dollar,  and  his  the- 
ory was  that  the  workingman  should  have  the  gold  dollar,  but 
in  practice  he  has  this  kind  of  a  dollar. 

Mr.  GRAY.  I  was  talking  about  the  gold  dollar  or  the  paper 
dollar  or  the  silver  dollar  as  good  as  gold. 

Mr.  GEORGE.  Exactly.  I  know  the  Senator  insisted  that 
the  laborers  got  these  good,  honest  dollars,  and  I  am  just  show- 
ing that  whilst  such  was  the  theory,  and  the  theory  was  all 
right,  the  practice  was  the  other  way. 

Now,  I  have  another  one: 

Laurel  Coal  Company  will  pay  to  bearer  5  cents  in  goods  at  the  supply 
store. 

The  Laui'el  Coal  Company  does  not  disclose  on  this  paper 
where  it  is.    I  suppose  they  knew  at  the  place. 

Miners'  order  for  5  cents.    Merchandise.    J.  Pitman  &  Son. 

That  is  another.  Now,  I  have  something  on  my  friend  from 
Texas.  It  is  not  only  done  by  these  rascally  mining  companies, 
but  here  is  a  very  extraordinary  paper: 

Thurber.    Texas  and  Pacific  Coal  Company— 

I  presume  that  is  in  Texas — 
Two  dollars. 

Issued  to  blank.     I  am  not  at  liberty  to  tell  his  name. 

Issued  to  John  Doe.  Receipt  given  for  this  book  and  accepted, 
as  stated  on  cover. 

There  are  a  great  many  nice  things  hero.  The  remarkable 
part  of  this  one  is  it  is  issued  in  amounts  of  $2.  It  has  40  of  these 
little  coupons  in  it.     I  will  read  one  of  them. 

Texas  and  Pacific  Companj'.  Good  for  5  cents  in  merchandise  it  not 
punched. 

R.  B.  HUNTER,  Treasurer. 

They  did  not  issue  two  or  three  of  these.  This  is  numbered 
87,530,  and  all  in  this  book,  the  whole  40,  are  numbered  8T,r)30. 

Mr.  GRAY.    Are  they  all  redeemable  in  merchandiseV 

Mr.  GEORGE.  Every  one  of  them.  That  is  the  good  honest 
dollar  which  these  men  get,  and  which  my  friend  from  Delaware 
insisted  they  ought  to  have. 

Now,  these  men  were  not  satisfied  with  dealing  in  shinplasters. 
They  thought  they  would  get  up  something  a  little  mox*e  solid  and 

486 


56 

substantial.    They  used  a  coin.     They  had  a  mint.     I  have  here 
some  of  the  coins  "issued  to  pay  the  laborers  with. 

Miner.i'  check.  Ufiy  cent.-.. 

It  seems  that  the  business  of  issuing  this  kind  of  money  to 
miners  was  not  only  indulged  in  by  the  principal,  but  even  by 
the  lessees. 

^Etna  Coal  Company,  lessees. 

This  is  the  first  coin  I  ever  saw  'that  was  not  of  metal.  They 
have  impi'oved  on  that.  This  is  on  pasteboard,  but  it  looks  ex- 
actly like  a  half  dollar.     Here  is  another: 

Good  lor  25  cents  in  merchandise.  Main  Jellico  Mt.  Coal  Company,  Ken- 
see,  Ky. 

So  I  have  found  them  in  Pennsylvania,  and  I  have  found  them 
in  Tennessee,  and  I  have  found  them  in  Texas,  and  also  in  Ken- 
tucky.   Here  is  another  beautiful  coin: 

The  Pitman  Coal  Company.    Five  cents.    Merchandise. 

Then  there  is  the  American  eagle  upon  it. 

Mr.  GRAY.     And  "  in  God  we  trust?" 

Mr.  GEORGE.  No,  sir;  they  were  not  trusting  in  God  over 
there,  they  were  trusting  in  the  other  power.  Here  is  another 
one.  It  looks  like  silver,  but  I  presume  it  is  not.  They  would 
not  make  it  out  of  silver;  it  must  be  tin.  It  comes  from  the  Pea- 
cock Coal  Company. 

Merchandise  check. 

Then  there  is  a  figure  five  on  one  side  of  it,  like  the  Mexican 
dollar,  with  the  rays  of  the  rising  sun  on  it. 

Then  here  is  another  one  good  for  .5  cents  in  merchandise.  It 
is  also  from  the  Main  Jellico  Mt.  Coal  Company,  at  Kensee,  Ky. 

So,  Mr.  President,  I  think  the  plea  set  up  by  my  friend  from 
Delaware  for  the  laborers  to  have  an  honest  dollar  will  not  stand, 
or  ought  not  to  stand.  I  think  if  we  had  a  good  honest  silver 
dollar  it  would  be  better.  The  rest  of  them  did  not  deem  it 
necessai'y  to  make  an  excuse,  they  just  issued  these  shin])laster8 
and  coins:  but  one  of  the  companies  put  across  the  face  of  its  shin- 
plaster,  ''Owing  to  the  scarcity  of  change  we  issue  this  check." 

I  do  not  think  this  is  exactly  under  the  present  system  satis- 
factory to  the  laborers  so  far  as  currency  is  concerned.  I  wish 
to  read  another  extract  from  Mr.  Powdei'ly's  address,  an  address 
which  I  suppose  was  sent  to  all  members  of  Congress.  It  was 
sent  to  me,  and  it  is  addressed  to  Congress.  I  read  it  not  so  much 
for  the  facts  as  for  the  argument. 

BANKS  AND  EXCHANGES  USE  CEtECKS,  BUT  THE  PEOPLE  USE  MONET. 

We  are  told  that  money  is  not  actually  required  in  the  transaction  of  busi- 
ness. That  is  true  only  of  our  stock  exchanges,  our  grain  exchanges,  and 
between  banks,  men,  and  concerns  having  large  commercial  and  mer- 
cantile interests  in  common.  The  great  bulk  of  the  people  must  have  money; 
they  must  use  it,  for  they  are  not  so  engaged  as  to  effect  exchanges  through 
the  use  of  paper.  But  a  few  men  can  do  without  the  actual  possession  of 
money;  that  is,  a  few  as  compared  with  the  population  at  large.  A  gold 
dollar,  as  a  basis  on  which  to  transact  business  or  to  point  to  as  a  standard, 
may  be  suitable  among  changers  of  money  and  those  whose  business  inter- 
ests are  so  interwoven  that  the  actual  passing  of  money  is  not  required,  but 
among  the  masses,  who  must  produce  the  dollar  before' food  or  clothing  will 
be  given  them,  the  actual,  real,  tangible  dollar  must  be  present  and  must  be 
exchanged.  To  pass  food  from  hand  to  mouth  the  dollar  must  pass  from 
hand  lo  band. 

So,  Mr.  President,  I  think  that  the  eloquent  plea  made  by  my 
friend  from  Delaware  the  other  day  in  behalf  of  the  laborers  for 
480 


57 

honest  money  turns  out  now  to  be  all  moonshine.  I  have  no 
doubt  that  he  thoug-ht  these  laborers  were  actually  receiving 
from  their  employei's  actual  hard  dollars  worth  100  cents  in  yold. 
I  read  now  to  show  how  much  tliey  wer;'  worth.  I  had  b.-tter 
read  a  few  items  to  show  how  they  are  redeemed  at  the  stores. 
I  had  forgotten  about  that.    Here  is  a  table  of  the  prices. 

Company's  stores,  flour  per  sack,  $2.10. 
Other  stores,  same  flour,  SI. 90. 
Sugar  per  ponnd,  compauy's  stores,  121  cents. 
Other  stores,  7  cents. 

And  so  on,  in  every  instance  there  is  a  difference  of  from  10  to 
25  per  cent  between  the  prices  charged  in  the  company's  stores, 
and  given  in  redemption  of  these  tickets,  and  other  stores. 
About  25  per  cent  more  is  charged  than  in  the  other  stores  in  the 
neighborhood.  That  is  the  glorious  kind  of  currency  to  which 
the  Senator  from  Delaware  invites  the  American  laborer  and  he 
insinuates  and  argues  that  we  Democrats  here,  in  trying  to  give 
the  American  laborer  an  honest  silver  dollar,  are  doing  harm  to 
him,  because  we  deprive  him  of  these  elegant  substitutes  for 
money  which  I  have  brought  to  the  notice  of  the  Senate. 

WE  CAN  MAINTAIN  THE  PARITY  BETWEEN  GOLD  AND  SILVER. 

Now,  Mr.  President,  the  next  question  is.  Can  we  maintain  the 
parity  between  these  metals.  I  do  not  think  there  is  a  doubt 
about  our  ability  to  maintain  the  two  metals  at  a  parity  on  the 
old  ratio. 

France,  with  less  than  35,000,000  of  people,  maintained  the 
parity,  at  a  greatly  less  ratio,  15i  to  1,  when  the  wants  of  the 
world  for  money  were  far  less  than  they  are  now. 

Assuming  Mr.  Walker  to  be  right — I  read  the  other  day  from 
Mr.  Walker,  in  which  he  said  that  the  consuming  power  of  the 
American  people  is  three  times  that  of  Europe— assuming  Mr. 
Walker  to  be  right,  that  we  are  equal  to  200,000,000  in  Europe, 
in  consuming  power,  and  therefore  in  the  necessary  use  of  me- 
tallic money  can  we  not,  with  a  use  for  money  three  times  as  great 
as  that  of  France,  do  what  France  did  for  many  years  and  does 
now?  But,  sir,  in  addition  to  this  the  population  of  France  was 
and  is  now  at  a  standstill;  we  are  increasing  in  numbers  with 
the  most  busy,  energetic,  and  extravagant  people  in  the  world 
at  the  average  rate  of  1,700,000  a  year  as  the  average  for  two 
decades. 

France,  when  she  maintained  the  ratio  of  15 yV  to  1,  had  large 
standing  armies;  was  engaged  in  costly  and.  to  her.  devastating 
wars,  whereby  production  and  consumption  w<n'e  brouglit  to  the 
lowest  point.  We  take  for  our  own  Army  and  Navy  but  an  in- 
signitic  int  and  inappreciable  proportion  of  our  producers.  We 
are  too  sti  ong  to  be  invaded,  too  honest,  too  magnanimous  to 
give  just  ground  for  invasion,  too  just  and  fair  to  invade  others. 
So  that  this  immense  country,  the  richest  in  natural  resources 
in  the  world,  is  lilling  with  almost  startling  rapidity,  with  the 
most  productive  of  all  people,  with  wealth  accumulating  beyond 
all  former  precedent.  With  an  int.^rnal  tra.llic  and  internal 
business  requiring  money  equal  to  all  Europe,  what  becomes  of 
the  claim  of  those  who  assert  that  we  are  not  able  to  maintain 
at  parity  the  money  of  the  Constitution?  The  trouble  with 
us  in  the  future  will  be,  and  I  wish  that  to  be  noted,  as  it  is 
now,  that  we  shall  not  have  a  sufficiency  of  real  money,  gold  and 
silver,  and  how  we  may  by  safe  and  wise  agencies  supply  that 
486 


58 

deficiency  in  money  by  othex'  means  than  gold  and  silver.  That 
will  be  our  trouble,  and  not  that  wo  will  bo  inundated  by  silver. 

One  thou;i-ht,  hitherto  unnoted,  will  demonstrate  this.  The 
world's  need  for  money  is  increasing-,  not  only  from  im  increase 
in  population,  but  from  that  ever-augmenting'  adjunct  of  a  high 
civilization,  the  division  of  labor.  This  tendency  is  especially 
illustrated  in  the  farmers  life.  In  the  early  part  of  the  century 
each  farm  or  plantation  was  a  little  world  in  itself.  On  each 
were  produced  nearly  all  the  needs  and  comforts  of  country  life, 
clothing,  shoes,  food  of  nearly  all  kinds,  fruits,  and  veget:ibles, 
farm  implements,  and  farm  animals.  There  was  no  need  for 
money  to  buy  them.  The  surplus  only  was  exchanged  for  money, 
and  with  a  small  part  of  that  the  few  additional  comforts  and 
necessaries  were  purchased. 

Now.  sir.  all  this  is  changed.  The  division  of  labor  has  been 
carried  to  an  extent,  in  its  increased  efficiency,  in  production, 
thatclothing  and  shoes  and  many  other  necessaries  are  notmade 
at  home.  Many  articles  following  the  law  of  natural  selection, 
as  to  climate — once  raised  on  every  farm — are  now  raised  only 
in  more  favored  localities,  and  become  the  subject  of  exchange. 
This  same  division  of  labor,  associated  with  the  greater  economy 
in  production  of  large  establishments,  has  driven  the  black- 
smith, the  wagon-maker — the  maker  of  all  the  implements  of 
farm  life  and  of  domestic  life— from  the  country  and  located 
them  in  the  cities. 

In  this  way  the  exchange  of  food,  clothing,  and  other  sup- 
plies with  these  local  factories  for  their  wares  has  entirely 
ceased.  Money  is  required  for  everything,  even  for  the  little 
toy  with  which  innocent  infancy  is  amused.  This,  sir,  is  there- 
suit  of  a  necessary  and  inexorable  social  evolution.  Besides 
this,  our  rural  population,  who  raise  a  part  of  their  needed  sup- 
plies, is  relatively  diminishing,  whilst  the  urban  population, 
who  sell  their  labor  and  their  products,  and  with  it  purchase 
farm- raised  supplies,  is  relatively  largely  inci'eased.  So  that 
there  is  a  continual  day  by  day,  year  by  year,  decade  by  decade 
increase  in  the  demand  for  money. 

Again,  in  our  advancing  civilization  the  standard  of  living  is 
being  greatly  raised.  This  demand  will  never  be  fully  and 
fairly  and  justly  supplied  so  long  as  currency  shall  be  so  defi- 
cient in  amount  as  to  require  that  rapid  circulation,  with  no 
abiding  place,  essential  to  the  system  advocated  by  the  banks. 
Sir,  shall  money  for  use,  for  i^aying  rent,  for  purchasing  daily 
food  and  clothing  for  the  laborer  be  so  doled  out  and  so  de- 
manded for  instant  and  constant  circulation  that  there  may  be 
no  weekly,  no  monthly,  no  yearly  accumulation  with  which  to 
purchase  something  beyond  the  daily  wants  of  the  poor?  The 
present  system  requires  this.  Shall  there  be  no  such  accumu- 
lations, to  meet  the  unexpected  calls  of  sickness,  the  marriage 
of  a  daughter,  or  an  occasional  trip  from  the  crowded  and  un- 
healthy cities  to  the  healthy  air  of  the  country— and  for  that 
other  want  more  urgent  than  all  these,  to  buy  food  during  that 
period  of  distress  and  woe,  a  panic  created  by  the  banks?  And 
yet  to  make  the  present  circulation  answer,  in  any  degree,  the 
dollar  must,  with  the  wings  of  the  morning,  commence  and  then 
pursue  its  daily  flight  with  electric  speed,  in  the  marts  of  com- 
merce, with  no  abiding  place  but  in  the  vaults  of  the  banks? 

This  rapid  circulation,  the  necessary  and  preordained  results 

486 


59 

of  the  present  system,  means  the  keeping  of  all  money,  or  nearly 
all,  in  the  banks,  or  under  their  direct  conti"ol,  Icavinoc  little  if 
any  with  the  mass  of  our  people. 

SILVER  BETTER  THAN  SHAM  MONET. 

But.  sir,  I  desire  to  notice  now,  a  little  further,  the  view  of  the 
bankers  that  we  must  demonetize  silver  on  the  ground  that  with 
these  substitutes  and  shams  to  which  I  have  alluded,  the  coun- 
try can  get  along  well  enough.  We  have  seen,  sir,  how  this 
well  enough  is.  We  have  seen  that  at  the  first  breath  of  dis- 
trust all  their  fair  erections  of  financial  aerial  architecture,  all 
their  devices  and  contrivances  to  help  out  a  deficient  currency, 
have  fallen,  and  the  banks  have  closed  their  doors  to  depositors, 
and  for  their  money  have  given  them  certified  checks.  We  are 
asked  to  take  these  ingenious  contrivances  as  substitutes  for  real 
money,  and  thei-ofor  demonetize  silver,  which  is  real  money. 

Sir,  we  are  asked  to  I'emove  one-half  of  the  foundation  of  our 
money  system,  not  indeed  because  the  whole  is  unnecessary, 
but  in  order  that  we  may  substitute  for  it  the  contrivances  of 
bankers,  which  fall  at  the  first  breath  of  the  storm.  We  are 
asked  to  annihilate  one  of  the  two  legs  which  support  our  circu- 
lation — both  sound  and  healthy — because  there  has  been  in- 
vented a  cork  leg,  on  which  we  may  hobble  about  on  smooth 
roads  in  fair  weather. 

But,  sir,  we  are  in  distress  now,  sore  distress;  and  it  is  urged 
from  many  quarters  that  we  should  pass  this  act  for  immediate 
relief  and  then  take  care  of  the  future. 

THE  SHERMAN  LAW  NOT  THE  CAUSE    OF    DISTRESS,   AND   ITS   REPEAL  WILL 
NOT  BRING  RELIEF. 

If,  as  is  alleged  by  the  Senator  from  Massachusetts,  the  Sher- 
man law  is  not  the  cause  of  our  distress;  and  if,  as  alleged  by  the 
Senator  from  Indiana,  the  banks  brought  it  about  for  their  own 
purposes;  and  if,  as  alleged  by  the  Senatorfrom  New  York,  mon- 
eyed men  and  creditors,  for  their  own  selfish  advancement,  con- 
tributed largely  to  it;  and  if,  as  alleged  and  proven  by  the  Sena- 
tor from  Colorado  [Mr.  Teller],  the  banks  caused  it  in  order  to 
secure  the  repeal  of  this  law;  and  if,  as  I  believe,  atd  have  en- 
deavored to  show,  the  position  of  the  Senator  from  Colorado  on 
that  point  is  entirely  correct,  lean  not  see  the  grounds  on  which 
we  are  to  act  in  enacting  the  repeal. 

Is  this  repeal  demmded  upon  the  ground  that  we  are  to  ap- 
pease the  wicked  and  perturbed  spirits  of  the  banks  so  that  they 
may  graciously  relieve  us  from  the  horrors  they  have  imposed? 
Or  are  we  asked  to  repeal  on  the  still  more  illogical  ground  that 
the  banks  and  not  the  law  have  created  the  distress,  and  there- 
fore we  ought  to  repeal  it,  and  for  what  other  reasons  I  know  not. 

If  the  Sherman  law  has  not  produced  the  panic,  and  nobody 
has  shown,  no  Senator  up  to  this  time  has  even  alleged  that  it 
has,  why  distui'b  it?  I  know  of  no  other  reason  than  this,  that 
the  banks,  the  authors  of  the  ti'ouble,  demand  it  as  the  price  of 
relief.  Already  we  see  in  the  metropolitan  journals  that  the 
action  of  the  House  has  had  a  good  effect  in  reviving  trade  and 
business  and  restoring  confidence.  Yet,  sir,  the  law  remains 
on  the  statute  books  in  full  force  and  vigor.  So  that  we  have 
the  extraordinary  case  that  the  hop  ■  of  relief,  in  the  shape  of 
repeal,  docs  the  work  the  repeal  itself  will  do.  This  satisfies 
me  more  and  beyond  doubt,  if  there  was  room  for  any,  that  the 

486 


E 


60 

panic  is  facticious.    The  patient  recovers  not  from  the  medicine 
re  scribed,  but  from  the  hope  that  hu  will  p-et  that  medicine 
erearter.     If  this  hope  is  so  efficacious,  then  let  it  alone  do  its 
good  and  perfect  work. 

But,  Mr.  President,  I  have  no  doubt  that  repeal  can  be  made, 
by  the  authors  of  the  panic,  to  accompany  or  precede  temporary 
relief.  The  banks  can  o])en  their  doors  to  depositors,  and  pay 
their  honest  debts,  and  that  will  be  a  great  i-elief.  They  can 
cea.se  furnishing  money  to  be  sold  on  the  streets  at  a  premium, 
if  they  now  do  so.  and  that  will  be  some  relief.  They  may  even 
put  us  in  the  condition  which  we  were  before  the  panic  com- 
menced—a condition  of  stringency  in  the  money  market,  of  low 
prices  and  distress  to  producers.  After  the  present  affliction  that 
will  seem  to  be  a  relief — a  hot  lire  may  be  endured  with  some 
comfort  just  after  escaping  from  the  tlames  of  Hades. 

But.  sir,  ought  we  to  purchase  not  indeed  relief  fx'om  the 
wrongs  and  burdens  of  our  present  money  system,  but  from  the 
exact  condition  of  horror  and  despair  produced  by  the  power  of 
money  by  yielding  to  their  demar.d':' 

Esau  sold  his  birthright  for  all  time  to  release  himself  not 
from  death,  but  from  the  pangs  of  present  hunger.  Shall  we 
sell  our  birthright  to  the  constitutional  money  of  both  gold  and 
silver  because  we  have  been  made  to  hunger  by  those  who  de- 
mand the  sacrifice?  My  answer  is  that  such  is  not  the  wish  of 
the  American  people. 

THE  PEOPLE  WILL  NOT  SUBKENDEB  THEIR  RIGHTS. 

In  all  ages  of  the  world  it  has  been  in  the  power  of  men  to  cre- 
ate such  situations  of  pain  and  trouble  as  to  be  unendurable,  and 
then,  for  their  own  ends,  they  have  promised  relief  if  the  victim 
will  make  some  great  sacrifice.  And  in  all  ages  there  have  been 
men  who  would  make  the  sacrifice  demanded,  and  yet  in  all  ages 
there  have  been  also  men  who  defied  power  and  pain  and  stood 
firmly  by  their  convictions  and  their  rights.  The  wretched  vic- 
tims of  the  inquisition  at  every  fresh  drive  of  the  wedge  in  the 
boot,  at  every  turn  of  the  thumbscrew  were  offered  release  from 
present  torture  for  a  surrender  of  their  conscience  and  their 
faith.  Many,  sir,  unable  to  withstand  the  pain  and  anguish  ex- 
changed for  present  ease  the  hopes  of  eternity,  and  yet  othei'S 
stood  firm  to  their  faith.  In  this  exigency  I  believe  the  Ameri- 
can people  will  endure  present  ills  with  fortitude  and  with  the 
determination  to  surrender  no  portion  of  their  rights;  will  keep 
up  the  struggle  for  the  full  restoration  of  the  money  of  the  Con- 
stitution till  success,  however  long  delayed,  shall  at  last  crown 
their  etforts. 

FINANCIAL  SLA  VERT. 

The  present  system,  if  long  persisted  in,  will  necessarily  work 
the  financial  slavery  of  the  people  in  the  end — by  more  and  more 
augmenting  the  wealth  of  bankers  and  other  capitalists,  and 
more  and  moi-e  reducing  the  fortunes  of  the  great  mass  of  the 
people. 

Already,  through  this  financial  system,  and  the  yet  more 
destructive  annual  transfer,  through  the  operation  of  the  pro- 
tective system,  of  a  sum  equal  to  $r);]2,000,000  directly  from  the 
pockets  of  the  people  to  the  m  mufacturers,  r.nd  by  other  Gov- 
ernment subsidies,  has  one-half  of  all  the  wealth  of  the  United 
States  been  concentrated  in  the  hands  of  about  2'4,O00  persons. 

486 


61 

This  ag^greg-ation  will  proceed  to  a  still  more  dangerous  ex- 
tent unless  there  shall  be  relief  from  both  systems — not  one 
alone,  but  both. 

Under  the  present  financial  system  every  single  dollar  in  cir- 
culation in  the  United  States  is  made  to  pay  interest  to  the  banks 
nearly  three  times.  Or,  in  other  words,  the  banks,  as  shown  by 
their  own  reports,  draw  interest  annually  three  times  on  every 
dollar  in  circulation  in  the  United  States,  theii-  loans  being,  as 
wo  have  seen,  over  $4,3(32,630,5:^7,  and  their  deposits  over  $4.',i00,- 
000,000,  and  the  circulation  being  only  $1,000,000,000.  Estimat- 
ing the  average  interest  charged  at  0  per  cent  (very  low),  they 
tax  the  currency  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  annually,  in 
round  numbers,  $258,000,000  (about  one-half  of  all  the  taxes  of 
the  Federal  Government  and  more  than  one  and  a  half  times 
the  taxation  to  support  all  the  State  governments i.  They  do 
this  on  a  capital  invested  by  them  of  a  little  more  than  $000,- 
000,000.  This  is  done  whilst  two-thirds  of  the  capital  of  the 
national  banks  is  otherwise  profitably  invested,  leaving  only 
about  $230,000,000  to  be  engaged  in  loans. 

THE  REPEAL  OF  SHERMAN  LAW  WILL  REDUCE  THE  VOLUME  OF  PRICES. 

This  is  the  great  prize  for  which  the  banks  are  struggling  in 
this  contest,  and  this  a  part  of  the  great  burden  from  which  the 
people  are  asking  relief. 

The  Senate  will  take  notice,  as  the  country  has  already  taken 
notice,  that  every  national-bank  note  necessarily  means  not  only 
a  debt  owed  by  some  person  to  the  banks,  but  under  the  system 
of  triplification  of  loans,  as  I  have  described,  it  means  an  indebt- 
edness of  thrice  its  nominal  value,  bearing  interest  three  times. 
Gold  and  silver  money,  I  admit,  when  the  currency  is  contracted, 
may  be  made  and  is  now  made  by  the  banks  to  do  this  triple 
duty.  B  at  they  are  not  necessarily  the  subject  of  triple  loans, 
or  even  of  any  loan  at  all.  They  may  be  and  often  are  owned 
without  even  having  been  the  subject  of  a  loan. 

But  this  is  not  the  only  burden  the  present  money  system  im- 
poses on  the  people  of  the  world,  if  it  shall  be  amended  by  the 
total  demonetization  of  silver  as  a  debt-paying  money.  '  We 
have  seen  the  enormous  indebtedness.  ])ublic  and  private,  in 
the  United  States,  amounting  to  many  billions  of  dollars. 

If  we  destroy  half  the  real  money  in  the  world  this  indebted- 
ness will  be  doubled  in  its  burdens,  and  the  wealth  of  the  24,U00 
owning  half  the  property  in  the  United  States  will  be  1  n-gely 
increased.  Are  we  here  to  perform  a  part  in  this  spoliation  of 
the  Amei'ican  people;  to  rivet  on  them  more  firmly  the  chains 
of  iinancial  slavei'y? 

Mr.  President,  I  do  not  wi^^h  to  be  misunderstood  on  any  part 
of  this  grevt  subject  of  giving  relief  to  the  Azuerican  peoiile. 

Whilst  I  bolieve  that  they  are  entitled  to  a  fuller  currency 
than  they  now  have,  to  an  increase  coming  not  only  from  the 
free  and  unlimited  coin-ige  of  gold  and  silver,  but  also  from  an 
increase  in  the  legal-tender  notes,  so  as  to  make  them  equal  to 
$10  per  c  ipita  of  the  present  and  the  increasing  population,  I 
am  satisfied  that  all  this  will  give  but  small  relief  if  we  allow 
the  annunl  transfer  of  the  inany  millions  I  have  alluded  to  from 
the  people  to  the  manufacturers,  under  the  present  protective 
system. 

It  will  do  but  little  permanent  good  to  increase  the  currency 
if  this  transfer  be  continued.    The  Americim  people  under  the 

486 


62 

protective  system,  like  blind  Samson  are  but  turning  the  mill  to 
make  profits  for  the  Philistines— to  fill  the  coffers  of  the  manu- 
facturers—and I  fear  that  an  addition  to  the  currency,  whilst 
this  system  continues,  will  do  little  more  than  add  gvUt  to  the 
mill,  out  of  which  will  be  ground  still  greater  profits  to  these 
beneficiaries  and  favorites  of  the  Government,  and  thereby  in- 
crease their  power  to  oppress  and  destroy  the  people. 

DEMOCRATIC   PLATFORM    DEMANDS    THE    DEFEAT    Olf    UNCONDITIONAL    RE- 
PEAL. 

Mr.  President,  it  is  said  that  the  Democratic  platform  of  1892 
demands  the  passage  of  this  bill.  I  deny  it,  and  aver  that  it  de- 
mands its  defeat. 

That  platform  on  this  subject  is  as  follows: 

We  denounce  the  Republican  legislation,  known  as  the  Sherman  act  of 
1890.  as  a  cowardly  makeshift,  fraught  with  possibilities  of  danger  in  the 
futiu-e.  which  should  make  all  of  its  supporters,  as  well  as  its  author,  anx- 
ious for  its  speedy  repeal. 

We  hold  to  the  use  of  both  gold  and  silver  as  the  standard  money  of  the 
country,  and  to  the  co  nage  of  both  gold  and  silver,  without  discriminating 
against  either  metal,  or  charge  for  mintage,  but  the  dollar  unit  of  coinage 
of  both  metals  muse  be  of  equal  intrinsic  and  exchangeable  value,  to  be  ad- 
justed through  international  agreement,  or  by  such  safeguards  of  legisla- 
tion as  shall  insure  the  maintenance  of  the  parity  of  the  two  metals,  and  the 
equal  power  of  every  dollar  at  all  times  In  the  markets,  and  in  the  payment 
of  debts;  and  we  demand  that  all  paper  currency  shall  be  kept  at  par  with 
and  i-edeemable  in  such  coin.  We  insist  upon  this  policy  as  especially 
necessary  for  the  protection  of  the  farmers  and  laboring  classes,  thetirstand 
most  defenseless  victims  of  unstable  money  and  a  fluctuating  currency. 

That  platform,  as  is  seen  by  the  reading,  denounces  the  whole 
Sherman  law  as  a  "  makeshift,"  and  alleges  that  its  supporters 
should  be  anxious  for  its  repeal. 

What  is  denounced?  The  Sherman  act — not  a  part  of  it,  but 
the  whole.  What  is  it  said  should  be  repealed?  The  same  an- 
swer: Not  a  part,  but  the  whole.  What  was  denounced  as  a 
"makeshift"'?  The  Sherman  act — the  whole  of  it,  not  apart. 
And  yet,  sir,  the  bill,  as  if  the  authors  of  it  had  suddenly  fallen 
in  love  with  the  act,  attempts  to  repeal  a  single  clause  of  the 
act,  leaving  the  other  part  of  the  act,  containing  six  sections,  in 
full  force. 

SHERMAN  ACT  DENOtmCBD  BECAUSE    IT    LIMITS    THE    COINAGE    OV  SILVER. 

So,  sir,  there  is  to  be  no  repeal  of  the  Sherman  act,  but  only 
of  a  part  of  it.  And  the  part  to  be  repealed  is  not  designated 
by  the  platform  as  especially  objectionable;  but  on  the  contrary, 
taking  the  whole  platform  on  this  subject  together,  it  is  plainly 
inferrable  that  this  very  clause  is  not  objectionable  per  se,  be- 
cause it  coins  silver,  but  is  objectionable  only  because  it  provides 
for  a  limited  instead  of  an  unlimited  coinage  of  silver.  For 
after  "denouncing  the  act  as  a  "makeshift,"  in  clause  1  of  the 
paragraph,  it  immediately  proceeds  to  declare  that  "we"  (the 
Democrats  of  the  Union)  "hold  to  the  use  of  both  gold  and  sil- 
ver as  the  standard  money  of  the  country,  and  to  the  coinage 
of  both  gold  and  silver,  without  discriminating  against  either 
metal." 

The  meaning  of  all  this  is  too  plain  for  mistake  or  for  contro- 
versy. The  Sherman  act  is  denounced  as  a  makeshift,  which 
means  "a  temporary  expedient."  A  temporary  expedient  for 
what?  It  can  only  mean  a  temporary  expedient  either  for  total 
demonetization,  for  which  this  bill  provides,  or  a  temporary  ex- 

486 


63 

pedient  for  a  more  enlarged  use  of  silver  money.  That  this  lat- 
ter is  the  meaning- — plain,  clear,  obvious — is  put  beyond  all  con- 
troversy by  the  subsequent  declaration,  in  the  same  clause,  in 
favor  of  coining  silver  on  the  same  terms  as  gold,  "  without  dis- 
criminating against  either."'  Gold  has  an  unlimited  imd  free 
coinage,  and  so  this  platform  says  silver  should  have  free  and 
unlimited  coinage. 

If  such  was  not  the  intention  of  the  convention,  then  that  body 
of  representative  Democrats  used  the  English  language  not  to 
express  their  meai^ng,  but  to  conceal  it.  The  people  under- 
stood that  it  meant  that  the  Sherman  bill  should  be  repealed 
and  thereby  give  to  us  the  free  coinage  of  silver  and  gold  alike, 
and  on  that  understanding  they  voted  for  and  elected  the  Dem- 
ocratic candidates. 

So  far  from  the  bill  carrying  out  the  Democratic  platform,  it 
is  a  gross  violation  of  it— a  direct  reversal  of  its  plain,  unambig- 
uous declaration. 

Why,  sir,  it  is  to  be  noted  that  there  is  no  declaration  in  this 
platform  committing  the  party  expressly  to  the  repeal  of  the 
Sherman  act  as  an  independent  measure.  The  declaration  is 
that  our  opponents,  the  Republicans,  should  be  anxious  for  its 
repeal,  because  itisa  miserable  makeshift  for  that  which  we  de- 
clared the  true  remedy,  to  wit,  free  and  unlimited  coinage;  and 
its  repeal  is  to  come,  not  as  a  separate  and  independent  measure 
to  which  the  party  is  committed,  but  in  consequence  of  the 
solemn  pledge  of  the  party  to  enact  free  coinage.  Free  coinage 
is  necessarily  a  rei^ealof  a  statute  providing  for  limited  coinage 
only.  In  that  sense  alone  does  the  Democratic  platform  commit 
the  party  to  the  repeal  of  the  Sherman  act. 

DUTY  TO  PERFOHM  PLEDGES. 

This  is  the  first  time  in  over  thirty  years  in  which  the  Dem- 
ocratic party  has  had  the  power  to  enact  laws — to  shape  the  poli- 
icies  of  this  country.  In  this  thirty  years  of  defeat  and  disaster 
we  have  sought  the  coufldonco  of  the  people  by  promises  of  re- 
form— promises  of  ai'eversalof  the  methods  of  the  Republican 
party.  Among  these  promises,  solemnly  made,  as  the  condi- 
tions on  which  we  asked  for  the  confidence  of  the  people,  is  the 
promise  three  times  deliberately  announced  in  national  conven- 
tion, that  we  would  give  the  people  free  and  unlimited  coinage 
of  silver — the  money  of  the  Constitution — and  three  times  have 
the  people  excused  nonperlormance  of  these  promises  on  the 
ground  that  we  had  not  the  power  to  perform. 

But  what  excuse  will  we  give  if  we  fail  now?  We  have  the 
power,  and  more  than  that,  we  have,  the  cooperation  of  a  large 
number  of  the  ablest  and  purest  men  of  the  Republican  party. 
Will  the  people,  whilst  we  destroy  unconditionally  $40^,000,000 
which  would  annually  be  added  to  the  currency  by  the  Sherman 
law,  accept  a  mere  declaration  of  policy  as  to  the  future,  and  a 
mere  promise  to  use  our  best  eftorts  to  effect  international  bi- 
metallism, as  a  redemption  of  our  own  oft-repeated  solemn 
pledges?  Will  they  not  rather  say,  ''We  have  promises  enough 
already.  We  are  suffering  from  actual  present,  emergent  ills, 
coming  from  a  deficient  currency,  and  we  do  not  mean  to  accept 
another  pledge  from  a  party  which  has  already  failed  to  re- 
deem three  others'"? 

Mr.  President,  I  have  often  had  difficulty  in  finding  the  path 

486 


64 

in  which  I  might  safely  tread,  but  in  this  matter  I  have  had  no 
doubts,  no  misgivings.'  There  are  some  duties  so  phiin  that  I 
can  not  mistake  them,  and  among  them  is  the  full,  fair,  and 
honest  redemption  of  a  solemn  pledge  made  to  the  i)eople,  a  re- 
demption in  that  sense  which  I  intonded  to  be  understood,  and 
in  which  it  was  understood  by  the  people.  In  this  full  and  free 
redemption  only  can  a  man  or  a  party  escape  thtit  most  terrible 
of  accusations  -perfidy,  I  impute  to  no  Democrat  who  diiters 
from  me,  any  improper  motives.  When  I  reflect  upon  their 
talents,  their  great  services,  their  patriotismftheir  high  eleva- 
tion of  character,  and  our  long  co;»peration  in  well-doing  for  the 
people,  I  can  but  regret,  deeply  regret,  that  an  occasion  has 
ai'isen  in  which  this  cooperation  is  impossible. 


APPENDIX 

Selected  statistics  of  manufactures  in  cities  of  20,000  inhabitants  and  over,  com 
piled  from  the  returns  of  the  Census  of  1890— Totals  for  the  United  States. 


Manufactures. 

1890. 

1880. 

Woolen  manufactures: 

2,489 

8296, 494, 481 

6219, 132 

C$76,  660, 742 

$19,  .529, 238 

2,689 
$159  091  869 

161  557 

Total  wages  paid 

$47, 389, 087 

Miscellaneous  expenses  d 

$302, 815,  812 

(SI  64.  .371. "ai 

Value  of  product               

$337,768,524  ;     $267,252,913 

Cotton  manufactures : 

Number  of  establishments 

905  1                    756 

$354,030,843  \    $208,280,346 
6221,585  1              174,659 

Average  number  of  employes 

Total  wa'zes  paid      

C$69,489,272'      $42  040  510 

Miscellaneous  expenses d 

$17.0.36,135 
$154, 593,  368 
$267,981,724 

Cost  of  materials 

$102, 206,  347 

Value  of  product . 

$192,090,110 

Silk  manufactures: 

Number  of  establishments 

472 

$51,007,537 

650,913 

C$19,680,318 

$4, 345, 032 

$.50,919,016 

$87, 298,  454 

382 

Capital  employeda 

$19, 125, 300 

Average  number  of  employes 

31,337 

Total  wages  paid 

$9,146,705 

Miscellaneous  expenses d 

Cost  of  materials 

$22. 467, 701 
$41  \  033, 045 

Value  of  product 

Dyeing  and  finishing  of  textiles: 

Number  of  establishments 

248 
$38, 450,  800 
620, 267 
e$9,717,011 
$3, 1.54,  219 
$12,362,082 
$28, 900, 560 

191 

Capital  employed  a 

$26, 223, 981 

Average  number  of  employes 

16,698 
$6, 474, 364 

Total  wages  paid 

Miscellaneous  expenses  d 

Cost  of  materials 

$13,664,295 
$32, 297, 420 

Value  of  product 

Chemical  manufactures : 

Number  ol  establishments 

1,624 
8169,270,324 
643,893 
C$25,421,771 
$13,478,380 
$106,  690.  375 
$178, 177, 488 

1.349 

Capital  employed  a 

$85, 394, 211 

Average  number  of  employes 

29, 520 

Total  wages  paid 

$11,840,704 

Miscellaneous  expenses  d 

Cost  of  materials 

$77, 494.  425 

Value  of  product , 

$117,377,324 

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